I Thought Things Were Normal Again:Nothing lasts
by xXbluerainsXx
Summary: I walked through life with a breeze in my step,but then this cursed key came and tortured me...making me fight...making me kill,but as i thought things were normal again...my life began to break into pieces and now this curse is the only thing i have left
1. Before the storm

Just a quick authors note:3 i, sadly, do not own kingdom hearts or any of the characters...TT if i did id be a totally awesome japanese dude named tetsuya Nomura(i think). CURSE YOU REALITY!!

I Thought Things Were Normal Again…

Chapter 1 "first night back"

A soft sunset was setting upon the destiny islands as darkness was slowly creeping its way through the area. Night was approaching as a young girl sat quietly on the beach reminiscing of all the great times she and some friends had long ago. They were a curious bunch they were… always questioning the world they lived in and always wanting to explore. But nothing ever happened. They just let time drift by them until something happened one night. But before a life changing journey everything was always the same. A tear ran down her cheek as a loud sound shot through the distance and 2 rays of blue light fell from the sky and crashed into the ocean as she snapped her head toward the water. The sun danced its rays into the droplets that detached from the ocean until gravity claimed them back into the dark water. The girl stood up curiously keeping her distance from the water. It's not like everyday you see two flashes of light crash into the ocean like that. Soon after though, two heads popped out of the water and instantly…she had no idea how…but she knew…

A smile overtook her.

"SORA!!RIKU!!" she yelled with glee waving her hands madly above her head as the two boys speed up swimming right towards the beach where she was standing. After reaching the shoreline, Sora kept running after he made his way out of the water and wrapped himself around her.

"kairi…we're…we're back" said sora through the barrage of tears that were spilling from his eyes as he attempted to smile while still embracing her. His damp clothes now making her clothes wet as well. Kairi couldn't help it. She let her tears fall also.

"you're…you're home…"said Kairi heavily as she tried to choke back her tears. For almost an eternity, they stood there upon the slowly setting sun, locked in an almost forever lasting embrace of each other.

"Oh so, no love for me? Well that's just fine…" pouted riku as kairi and sora realized how long they held each other and with that, they both ran at riku full speed and wrapped him within their cocoon of undying love.

"okay…o…kay…can't… breathe" said riku as he was slowly turning the color of his dark purple pants. They all let each other go and sora let himself fall to the ground against the soft sand.

"we're… we're really home" said sora as the impact of how long they've been away from each other finally smashed its way into his skull. Tears began welling back into his eyes and he brought his palms to his eyes to try and hide it…but it failed…his sobs let them all know that he was crying.

"it's okay sora…it's okay…"said kairi as she lifted him up and held his battle worn body against hers. Riku had no idea what was going on, sora was his best friend and he had never seen him cry so much in his whole life, sure he cried whenever he was beaten by riku in one of their friendly rivaling competitions…but this was a whole new level…

"I…I just wanna sleep…" said sora wearily through a barrage of tears. And slowly…silently they all walked to sora's house unaware of what they would find.

Chapter 2

"a lonely house"

Night had slowly approached by the time they got to sora's door step. The lights were off…weird. Sora reached a hand out to the doornob only to find it was locked.

"wait…what's going on here? Why's the door locked?" sora muttered to himself in a low whisper and raised one of his eyebrows apparently as confused as the other two that had accompanied him. Lucky there was always an extra one underneath the doormat that read "welcome". Sora bent down leisurely to pick up the key. There was something carved onto it. Sora held the key against the moon light and it read "we love you". a tinge of curiosity struck through sora as he jammed the key inside the knob and quietly walked in. The lights were off and to his left the kitchen stood empty, in front of him the dining room left perfectly still as if a sculpture to his right the living room with turned off television and all. He ran through every corner of the house in vain attempt at finding someone else within the desolate household

"MOM? DAD?" said sora as he glanced down to the floor with tears welling up into his cerulean eyes.

"where…where are they?…" said sora as he stood silently in place still looking at the ground..

"there's no lights…nothing… they're just…gone…" sora took one last look around the ground floor and slowly trudged up the stairs to the bedrooms leaving riku and kairi alone to the bottom floor. He slowly paced himself to his room, there was a sign on his door from before he had left on his epic journey. "sora's room keep out" . The letters were slightly faded.

"what is it?" sora jumped as riku and kairi stood at the top of the stairs looking at him from down the hallway with worry plastered to their faces.

"it's…it's nothing…" he softly shook his head and with that he slowly pushed his door open. It was exactly the same as when he left it, clothes sprawled across the floor, the hardwood surface was covered in a thin layer of dust, his closet disorganized, his moogle alarm clock stood still as a sculpture next to his star lamp that he'd had ever since he was little. He quietly walked over to the wall and ran his hand across a couple pictures of him and his parents. His father was a great man whom sora was the spitting image off, except for his eyes…sora had his mothers beautiful blue eyes. His father looked around 33, his hair just as oddly gravity defying as sora's with deep emerald green eyes, his mother looked to be 30. She was beautiful, her hair was tidy in a pony tail as she and her father held each of soras hands in theirs. Her eyes were the same as sora's a deep heartwarming blue sapphire. Her eyes were filled with love as they all stared out at the photographer. A tear slid down soras cheek as he slowly brought his hand away from the picture taking a small trail of dust with it.

"hey sora? Riku and I have to leave, we'll come back first thing tomorrow" said a concerned kairi. She walked up to him and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek.

"I've missed you" said kairi blushing and just then it seemed…everything in the world had stopped. Soras tears had left him, and his heart was racing. Riku just let his mouth hang open until he gained control over himself again.

"uh…ahem…" said Riku coughing into his hand regaining his composure "yeah sora, get some sleep. We'll be back first thing tomorrow" and with that, they left sora inside his room…his house…his world…all alone.

Sora walked back down the dark empty hallway, went down the stairs and sat upon the red sofa within his living room. Something had caught his eye, upon the lamp stand next to the couch was an envelope that read "SORA" in faded letters. Curiosity overtook him as he delicately picked it up and slowly tore open the top.

"dear sora

Your mother and I have been grieving over our loss of you for the past 5 months now that you have been gone…by the off chance that you might come back, we decided to leave you the house and this letter, we are now somewhere very, very far away…where? I shan't say but if you are reading this, just know that we love you very, very much…I remember when you were first born…you were the most beautiful child I could have ever wished for. And your mother…god she was breath taking. Heh I can even remember how I almost fainted as I held you in my arms…you were so tiny but as soon as I saw your face I could tell you looked just like me…and then I saw those big blue eyes of yours and I was lost in them because they were so much like your mothers…(sigh) sora…we loved you so dearly all of our lives until that freak storm hit. We heard a crash from your window and your mother and I ran to check on you but you were nowhere to be found. Gosh…your mother was hysterical trying to find you. But we came across a few odd characters. One especially was a short little fellow with some rather large ears, micky I believe his name was. But sora. Just remember your mother and I love you very much and nothing will ever change that. It might sound crazy but I just know you will read this. So please my son…stay strong and live on. There are still people in this world that care about you. And who knows. Maybe we will see each other again someday. But until that day my son…goodbye.

Much love

Your father

Markus

Sora had read this letter three times over again. This time the pain was so great that he could not bear just tears this time. He fell to his knees with tears pouring from his eyes…outside the living room window riku and kairi just watched as their best friend broke down to pieces. His deafening wails of sorrow brought tears to there eyes as well. Riku now…Riku was never one for crying but at this…he just couldn't help himself. Riku silently walked off across the beach to his house. Unlike sora, riku lived all on his own. Kairi on the other hand…Kairi leaned her back against the wall of the house completely broken hearted whilst hearing the mournful cries of the boy that she secretly had an intense affection for. Tears slid from her cheeks as she slid down against the wall towards the soft earth beneath her. She could not help it… she loved sora and for her to see him like this tore her heart into pieces. She sat quietly with her knees to her chest, silently letting tears drip from her eyes.

After what seemed like an eternity kairi lifted her head up from an accidental sleep she must have taken. Half dazed she noticed it was getting slightly cold on the outside. All was silent…odd…she scrambled up to full height to dust herself off still half way asleep. She looked through the window once more to find that sora was asleep curled into a ball holding his knees tightly to his chest while holding the picture of him and his parents close to him while he slept. This picture ripped kairi's heart right out of her chest. Silently she opened sora's front door and slid herself inside closing it quietly behind her. She looked over to sora who was still pitifully curled upon the living room carpet fast asleep. Silently she crept her way up the stairs to grab a blanket. Once received she made her way back through the dark hallway and down the deserted flight of stairs. Sora must have woken up because now he was laying on the couch breathing softly. Steadily kairi placed the blanket over top of him and gave him a soft peck on his lips. She turned to walk away and she was at the door until…

"please don't go" as warm hands wrapped themselves around her waist. This made kairi jump and she turned her head over her shoulder with wide eyes only to see that sora had woken up and was now holding her closely to him with his face buried in her hair.

"Please…don't go…" said sora again as his tears softly began to crash down towards his hallway floor.

"I wont' sora… I won't…" she turned around in his arms and held herself against him in the dark twilight that the moon had radiated through the beautiful house's windows. Kairi lifted her head off of his chest and she took a deep look into sora's hurt and pain ridden eyes. She had never seen this in him before. He had always been so strong and jubilant but now, his tears dropped faster than the rain itself. He couldn't help himself. After looking into Kairi's beautiful light violet eyes, sora just couldn't help himself any longer. He brought his lips against hers. Kairi did not fight it, she kissed him back and passionately they stood there locked in an everlasting embrace. All this time Sora had also loved kairi and now over the course of a year not being able to be with her, he couldn't help but let his emotions out now. Their lips parted and they looked into each others eyes. Sora's were brimming with tears and kairi took her hand and wiped them away for him. At this point, they knew they loved each other. But it was still rather unpronounced.

"come on sora, you need sleep" kairi led him with his hand held in hers back to the couch he once was sleeping upon and guided him onto the couch with her soft caress.

"I'll sleep here with you tonight. I promise I'll be here when you wake up" surely enough after this sora rested his head upon the soft pillow beneath him. Almost instantly, sleep had taken him and he was within his own realm of dreams. Kairi had nuzzled herself onto the couch with sora just perfectly fitting her head into the space underneath sora's chin. Kairi couldn't help but smile at this but soon enough as she stared out into the moonlight through the living room window, sleep had taken her as well.

DADDY WATCH ME! Said and energetic 5 year old as he swung upon his swing slowly going higher and higher.

"be careful sora, we don't want you to get hurt" said a concerned mother softly placing a hand to her chest in worry.

"haha don't worry shannyn, he'll be fine, just let him have his fun" his happy go lucky father shined his warm grin to her and all her worries seemed to melt away.

"WEEEEEEE" as sora launched himself from his swing landing straight in his fathers strong arms.

"AGAIN AGAIN!!DO IT AGAIN!" sora chimed in excitement. His mother standing at the side eyes wide open at what she just had witnessed.

"heh..no sora…it's time to go home, you see the sun over there? It's going down and its going to get dark soon…and you know what happens when it gets dark outside" an evil grin sparked across his face. Sora gulped hard at this.

"…m…monsters"

"OH MARKUS! STOP IT!" grabbing sora out of his arms and into her own casting a glare in his direction.

"sshh baby…It's okay" she said as worried tears began to brim into the young boys eyes.

"lets go home now" she said with a smile and at that, all of them turned out of the park towards their beloved home. Unaware that this was a dream, an older sora sat idly by watching the whole thing.

Chapter 3

Morning of mourning

The sunlight had caused kairi to wake with a stir is it danced itself upon her face. Her eyes opened slightly to take in the suns warm rays as she smiled to herself.

"Good morning sora" kairi felt for his warm touch but he was not there

"sora?" bolting upright from her sleepy position. She jumped from the couch and paced past the front door to observe the kitchen and the dining room.

"oh (sigh) there you are" a smile ran across kairi's face as she went to sit next to sora who was sitting quietly staring out the window beside him. A cup of coffee was held in his hands and he was shaking ever so slighty. Kairi rested her head upon his shoulder. Suddenly reality came back to sora as he gave a dazed look to kairi. A smile overtook him and he brought his hand up to graze her face. There they sat in the dining room, until the silence began to become unbearable. Then sora spoke

"It's all going to be different now…isn't it?" said sora as his pained expression grew more and more intense. Kairi laced her fingers into his.

"yeah… but it'll be okay…I promise". Sora gave one quick look into kairi's eyes and couldn't help himself. He crashed his lips down upon hers once again while cupping her face in his hands. This was a whole new side of sora that kairi had never seen before. She liked it. Out of breath they each just simply looked into each others eyes. They were both on the verge of tears. Quietly they held each other as tears made their way to the ground. A knock sounded at the door and riku let himself in. Across the hall into the dining room he saw kairi and sora holding each other.

"oh am I interrupting?" he raised one of his eyebrows as they both jumped and let go of each other slightly red in the face.

"well today I figured we should go to the beach, I mean its like…right there, and schools going to be starting soon." sora sat deep in thought until a smile washed upon his face completely ignoring the fact that school indeed was going to start within a week.

"yeah…that sounds like a good idea…" sora stood up

"go ahead to your houses guys I'm going to get ready" and with that, sora walked past riku and kairi into the empty hallway up the flight of stairs to his room. At this it seemed sora's solemn disposition left him and he was once again his happy self.

"so what did you guys do last night?" riku gave an arrogant smirk towards kairi. Kairi took pitiful offense to this and arched her eyebrows with an icy stare towards the ground.

"riku don't give me that…you should have seen him last night. You DID see him last night, how could you have just left while your best friend was breaking down ten feet away from you? I was just here so he had someone to be with." kairi finished her sentence and all was silent. Riku looked to the floor with guilt sprawled upon his face

"im sor--" riku began but kairi raised a hand to silence him.

"it's fine riku, its okay." riku looked at her tears brimming upon his icy blue eyes. Noticing this, he wiped away the tears with the back of his hand before they could fall.

"its just…I've never seen sora like that…I just couldn't help it… it was too much for me…" riku turned his back and opened the door. Before closing it he said,

"see you at the beach in 15 minutes" and with that he shut the door behind him. Kairi was able to hear his first few steps out the door but then all was silent again. She turned to look one last time out the window. For a second she had actually appreciated the scene she found sora observing this morning when she found him. The shore in his backyard beach area glistened the suns rays upon itself and reflected the light onto the two palm trees making them cast a shadow. The shadows were cast in different directions towards each other and they made somewhat of an abstract heart. The scene was beautiful. No wait… more than beautiful. It was simply breath taking. Kairi was lost in thought until--

"something wrong?" kairi shut her eyes against the beautiful picture and slowly turned her head towards sora.

"no" she said silently, "Nothing at all" she got up and walked towards sora and she softly embraced him. He did the same. Sora had never really noticed what kairi was wearing but for a moment he did. She looked stunning her hair was let down and she was wearing a white tank top lined with purple, and her blue and white checkered school skirt. Odd combination but with her anything worked.

"I've missed you so very…very much…" her voice slightly trembled.

"I know kairi…I know…but I'm here now and that's all that matters". sora's strong words flew straight to Kairi's heart and gave her a new sense of confidence. She departed from his grasp and walked to the door.

"see you at the beach in fifteen minutes, riku will be waiting for us" she gave a wink to sora and shut the door behind her as she walked out. His heart pumped excitedly as he heard her first few footsteps outside the door until they faded into the distance. Here he was. All alone again. The eerie silence was almost enough to send a shiver down his spine but he brushed it off and slowly made his way back to the living room couch. He picked up the cherished letter that his parents had left him and he read it over one more time. He shut his eyes once finished and set the letter down beside him upon the red sofa. He set his elbows upon his knees and placed his palms upon his forehead silently sitting in deep thought. His parents loved him. So why did they leave? Did they think he was not coming back? Seems like it. Sora looked over to the envelope one last time before departing from his house to the beach. He noticed something that he had not before. There was another piece of paper inside. He carefully unfolded it but suddenly a pain pierced through his heart while in shock he eyed the piece of paper. It was a picture of when he was just a child. He was smiling and waving at his parents. Everything seemed so perfect. But now…It was all gone. Upon the floor there was another piece of paper. It was a check amount of money that they had left for him just in case he had returned. 10,000 munny. That was enough to get him by for the rest of his life.

"I guess they really must have cared about me then" sora blinked hard and placed all the papers back into the envelope and he paced upstairs to his room and placed the precious paper underneath his mattress. He walked back downstairs, grabbed his towel and silently closed the door behind him. Everything in the house was silent once again.

Chapter 4

Rejuvenation in the water (what goes around comes around)

Destiny Islands is where Sora, Riku, and Kairi had lived and these island were part of a much larger mainland called Kingdom. Everything was quiet that day as Sora made his way off of his front door step and into the waking sunlight. The warm sun gave a friendly tickle to the back of soras's neck while he walked in silence to the deserted beach. He was early, so for the remaining time until riku and kairi showed up he changed into his beach attire. He was clad in a pair of baggy black cargo shorts along with a black tank top. Sora looked down at his body and didn't even realize all this time…he had grown more muscular. He raised an eyebrow to himself but couldn't help but flex himself as he smirked. His biceps were the size of softballs easily and his abs, they were rock hard and clearly defined. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all? He laid out his towel and parasol and laid himself a few feet from the sunny shore underneath the cool shade. He placed his hands behind his head and shut his eyes. It was a hot day. Maybe today was going to be better than the last. Maybe today…he would be able to forget. Maybe he would be able to find happiness at the fact that his best friends were once again by his side. Never again would he want to lose them. Not after riku had been locked inside kingdom hearts. And not after kairi had lost her heart to the darkness. He opened his eyes towards the salted ocean and slowly got halfway up to where he was just sitting. One knee was up and the other lazily flung out in front of him. He placed his elbow upon his knee

"where the hell are they…" too soon had he spoken though as Riku ran head first and plunged him self into the sapphire ocean. Kairi shrugged her shoulders and took a seat next to sora.

"Nice day huh?" she said with a smile. After seeing riku with his dynamic entry sora couldn't help himself. He just had to make an impression also.

"yeah, it's a great day" a smirk wiped onto his face as he bolted from his place on the beach. He was sprinting faster and faster towards the water but then.

"OH SHIT!" he stepped on a soft spot and stumbled. He tried to keep himself upright but it proved to no avail. He landed face first into the sand while Riku and Kairi both fell over laughing at him.

"Sorry Sora but I'm gonna have to give that one a 0" sora flicked him the finger as his face was still in the sand. A few seconds past and he got up spitting out the clumps of sand that had invaded his mouths privacy. "Ugh…salty." He brushed himself off and walked casually into the surprisingly warm water. He stood waist deep for a few moments until plunging in alongside Riku. Underneath the surface lied a whole other world apart from that in the mainland. It was a beautiful sight to behold. Hundreds of fish were scattered throughout playing gracefully in the patches of coral and seaweed. The sway of the water from underneath was like a gentle breeze against sora's body, further away was riku. He beckoned sora closer with a welcoming invitation. He had a smile on his face. Sora resurfaced first to get a new lungful of air for the fact this the air within his lungs was stale and unsupportive of his bodily needs. He plunged down once more to where riku was treading water. Riku was pointing inside a small cavern. Sora curiously swam up to it and accidentally swallowed a mouth full of water from gasping in shock. He panicked while he resurfaced and sputtered out the water.

"KAIRI GET OVER HERE!" there was an enormous smile plastered to his face. Kairi just looked confused. Until another call from sora had hit her.

"KAIRI HURRY UP!" riku resurfaced beckoning along with sora for her to come down into the water with them. She stripped down into her bikini and she slowly tip toed her way into the water. Sora looked at her completely stunned. If nosebleeds were possible at this point then his nose would have been a waterfall of blood. He was also…slightly stimulated, if you know what I mean. Riku looked from the approaching kairi and back to sora and slapped a hand to his forehead. She reached the boys and all of them tread water.

"It's right down there" the smile on sora and riku's faces seemed a little… menacing to kairi. Just a tad bit skeptical she held her breath and the trio plunged underneath together. About 15 feet underneath the surface they reached the cavern riku had discovered earlier. Kairi seemed a little dazed as she had a look of wonderment across her beautiful face. It seemed she also must have noticed what sora had at first. Reality snapped back to her and she plunged further into the water towards the cavern. Both Sora and Riku beckoned her toward them until…

"(GASP)" Kairi's eyes were wide with amazement. Within the cavern laid an oyster but it was like no other they had ever seen. Its shell was comprised of rainbow like material and on the inside sat an enormous pearl easily the size of a watermelon. She ran out of breath and went to resurface while sora and riku followed

"(gasp) DID YOU SEE THE SIZE OF THAT PEARL?! OH MY GOD IT WAS HUGE!" each of them was smiling gleefully. Kairi looked back into the water in the direction of the over sized pearl. You could tell by the look in her eyes she wanted it.

"No Kairi" a somber expression made its way onto sora's face. Kairi's glee suddenly washed away with the tides

"It has to stay here Kairi, we have to maintain the worlds natural way of things. If we took the pearl it just wouldn't be right. We'd be taking away part of the worlds natural beauty" Kairi looked down towards the pearl with deep longing in her eyes.

"(sigh) okay" she seemed to have trouble saying this. It seemed almost as if it hurt her to say it.

"Come on guys, lets get back to shore and dry off, the waters getting sort of cold" sora slightly shivered at this and the others agreed. Sora lead the way back to the shore swimming as if an Olympian. The trio had reached the shore and sora made his way to the spot he had created for himself. Not even caring for the impact he just let himself fall backwards onto the towel he had laid out earlier. He looked over only to notice kairi. Her goddess like form was flooding his senses once again and all seemed perfect to him. Kairi looked over at sora to notice him staring at her. She blushed innocently and sora nearly lost his mind at how beautiful she was.

"what are you looking at?" reality struck sora and released him from his ever lasting day dream.

"oh…nothing…"sora looked the other way further down the beach. He got up slowly from his relaxed position and walked over to the empty shack that stood a little ways away. No one seemed to notice. Once inside the shack a barrage of memories suddenly hit him. It was the first place he and riku had their first ever contest to see who could stay inside longer without running out scared from the dark…Riku won of course. Further into the shack there was a frail flight of stairs. Sora scaled the squeaky flight of stairs and pushed through the door that was at the top. The light from the sun beam rushed him in surprise as he held a hand up to shield his fragile eyes. Out ahead of him was the long wooden bridge that connected a smaller island to the rest of the main island. Sora walked carefully across the bridge and stood in the middle of the island. To his right stood the paopu fruit tree that he, Riku, and Kairi would always end their day at in some deep discussion. Slowly he walked over and ever so gently he laid a hand to the ancient bark. He then diverted his attention from their ancient tree to look out to the never ending sea. It was a beautiful sight to behold. The Horizon line met upon the clouds as if mixing them into some concoction of perspiration. Sora hopped himself up onto the tree to observe his surroundings. Something was wrong. He looked over to his right at the beach where he and his friends were earlier…but they were not there. He shrugged it off and sat in thought.

"hmm… wonder where they went…" little did he know that both riku and kairi had followed him and they were making their way across the bridge

"I wonder what he's doing over there" kairi gave a confused look that riku decided to take as rhetorical. He remained silent. Riku always WAS the cool and silent type. They were at the connection of the smaller island to the bridge when they stopped dead in their tracks to listen to sora's conversation with himself.

"(sigh) how can I tell her how I really feel? And school is coming up soon…guys are going to be all over her… but then we did kiss…does that mean anything?(sigh)" Sora placed an elbow upon his knee and laid his head upon his hand. Riku gave a shocked look towards Kairi and she simply blushed and turned the other way.

"(sigh) I just don't know what to do…" a somber expression plastered itself to sora's face and his mind became foggy. Riku and Sora had only gotten back yesterday, god only knows how, but luckily enough for them it was summer break. But unluckily enough summer break was nearing its end. The trio would have to go back to school to start their junior year, well Riku would be starting his senior year.

" well you could start with this" kairi's words made sora's heart leap into his throat as she placed her hands around his face to turn him towards her and she softly kissed him. Unaware of what was going on, reality had finally occurred to sora that the love of his life was…kissing him? No way…this has to be a dream. But reality took him over again and he was indeed being kissed by kairi. She let her lips part from sora's and sora, completely awestruck, kept leaning back from where he was turned and he fell off the tree. Luckily enough for sora the tree was bent at a 180 degree angle and it was only a few feet off the ground so he didn't get hurt too bad when he fell on his head. He scrambled to his feet totally oblivious to the fact that Riku was on his back roaring with laughter while kairi was doubled over pointing and laughing at the goofball she had planted a kiss upon.

"aww come on guys." pouted sora but it didn't help, they still continued to laugh at him. The thought suddenly occurred to him… "kairi kissed me…" he blushed at this and turned to walk back towards the shack where he first came from. While on his way he gave a half joking half revengeful kick to riku's side.

"OW! What was that for?!" said Riku as he winced in pain at the throb that was slowly but surely revealing itself.

"heh what goes around comes around pal" and with a smirk sora left them.

"where are you going sora?" a curious kairi approached sora.

"eh I think I'm done for the day. Do you guys want to can come over to my house? I gotta talk to you guys about something" and with a swift kiss to kairi and a smirk towards riku he left them.

Chapter 5

The mysterious door

Sora made his way back to his "empty" house from the beach. His body ached from all the swimming they did. Riku was right. It did help his nerves a little bit. Two minutes of walking and sora was back at his front door step. He let out a sigh remembering that his parents were long lost and pushed the door open and walked inside. The idea of his parents leaving him was beginning to get easier to handle. His clothes were still soggy from earlier events so he absent mindedly threw off his tank top and flung it into the basement…wait…he had a basement? As he was walking away he stopped mid step and turned back around and peered back down into the darkness. There was no light switch at the top like there usually would be…but faintly…he could see a light down there. He walked to his living room and grabbed a flashlight. Quickly he made his way back to the mysterious basement door. He opened it back up and shone his flashlight into the darkness. To no avail did it help. The darkness was too thick. No matter how strong the light the darkness still remained intensely viscous. At this… sora took his first step.

"don't worry sora…your heart is strong…no darkness will ever hurt you…just keep your light burning bright" and with that sora descended down into the darkness.

Chapter 6

Where did this come from?

Further down the flight of stairs, sora's fear started becoming more and more distinct. He attempted keeping a level head…but it proved to no avail. How long was this stair case? It seemed as if he'd been walking down it for centuries. Sora turned back around and to his surprise the door was only 7 steps above him. It seems his fear of the dark had kept him stalling in a false reality. Bravery along with a hint of annoyance overtook him and he continued his descent down the wretched staircase. The light from earlier was now clearly visible but it seemed…distant… Sora took a few more steps and it was apparent that he had reached the bottom when the shock from accidentally missing a step shot its way through him as he stumbled over the soggy tank top he had thrown down previously, accidentally letting his flashlight drop. It slammed with a crash onto the hard floor and glass from the bulb flew out shattering into his leg.

"AAH!AAAHHH!!SHIT!!" the shards of glass were large and had deeply embedded themselves within his flesh. The darkness seemed to have come alive, it was as if it was laughing at his misery. The pain was becoming unbearable for Sora. His cries of intense pain reached no ears unfortunately. He wrenched his eyes open allowing the tears to pour out and he attempted to get up. He was almost up until the pain seared through his leg once again and he fell back to the ground yelping in pain. His grunts of pain were growing more and more violent until he had fought himself forcibly to stand up. He had to reach that light.

"(pant) almost…there…" sora was getting closer and closer as he dragged himself forcibly crawling across the floor to the mysterious light, he wanted it…he craved for it…he hungered for it.

"(pant pant) just…a little…more…" the light he longed for was blinding him with its warmth. There he was now kneeling just inches from the source of all his power that got him there. Before he realized what he was doing it seemed his arms had taken control of themselves and they began to rise themselves up towards the mysterious light.

"what…the…he-" the last word failed to escape his lips as the light suddenly began swirling around him, shielding him from the intense pressure of the darkness. It wrapped in closer and closer to him with its warmth until it had become so close it went to his inside. There it stayed. But… an odd feeling was coming over sora…a feeling of bravery…courage. Sora knew this… he knew what this feeling was. It was none other than the very same light he found thanks to kairi when he turned into a heartless back at Hollow Bastion. He turned to face the oppressing darkness behind him and he began walking towards it ever so slowly. The darkness gave a hissing noise as he walked closer and closer to it slightly radiating from the inner light he had just recently received. His glow became more and more intense as his ascension up the stairs pushed the darkness further and further from him. He was upon his last step until

"AH!" something put upon him a bone shattering grip that refused to let go. Sora fell upon the ground flailing his arms in every direction for something to hold onto and keep him from being pulled back into the darkness.

"HELP!!HELP ME!!" his cries were useless…he was going to be pulled from the world of light which he lived into the world of darkness were he was going to remain…his light just wasn't strong enough to penetrate this darkness…this horrid intense darkness. It couldn't be…no…not ansem… not him… A crash sounded through the house hold as Sora's front door burst open from a dynamic kick from Riku.

"SORA! HOLD ON!" riku lunged onto the steps grasping sora's arm pulling on him for dear life as if he was being inches away from death by falling off of a cliff.

"KAIRI! HELP ME!" Riku was struggling to keep the darkness from claiming his best friend as another victim. Kairi ran up and pulled as hard as she could. Little by little Sora was escaping the grasp of darkness.

"ALMOST THERE!!JUST HOLD ON!" Riku wailed one last time while angrily looking into the eye of the being that was pulling sora down into the dark. It was Ansem…that son of a bitch…But just then something magical happened. Light from all three of them had arisen and was now battling with the darkness, and with one last hard pull sora flung out and kairi slammed the door behind them. They sat there each sprawled across the floor as they were all panting and were too breathless to speak. A few moments passed and fresh air had occupied the inside their lungs and words were now possible once again.

"oh my god sora! Your leg!" kairi put her hands to her mouth in shock as sora still laid upon his floor. Riku stared in shock at how much blood there was. Sora gave a gallant effort to get back up on his feet while Riku and Kairi sat idly by watching him. Once on his feet, his vision became blurred and with it, a crash that stirred the whole house as he fell to the floor, unconscious.

"SORA!" the remaining conscious friends in the household said simultaneously as they both scrambled to his side.

Chapter 7

I love you too

Sora awoke to a loud crash sounding from his kitchen.

"SSSHHH!!RIKU!!YOU'LL WAKE UP THE WHOLE FREAKIN WORLD WITH THAT!"

"sorry…sorry…" back on the top floor in his bedroom sora was still incredibly groggy but couldn't help but get up as his friends were making so much noise down below.

"(sigh) you guys…" he quietly said to himself as he attempted to sit upright.

"AH!" sora let out an intense moan as another searing pain shot into his leg as he tried to move it.

"what the…" looking down on his nursed wounds he couldn't recall what had given him this battle scar. The bandages were wrapped neatly around his cut leg and there was a pair of old crutches perfect for sora's size next to his bed. Sora furrowed his eyebrows downward seemingly making an angry face.

"… I don't know need those…" he said while attempting to stand up. He had managed halfway but fell to the floor as pain seared him once more. With a sigh he grabbed the crutches and brought himself upright and made his way down stairs where all the commotion was still taking place.

At the bottom step he looked into the kitchen and noticed Riku and Kairi cooking something. The smell was half way between pleasant…and halfway between atrocious.

"what's that smell?" both Riku and Kairi jumped and Riku had accidentally dropped a pot sending another loud crash through the house and at that probably the whole world. Hands upon her hips Kairi let out another shout.

"RIKU, WATCH WHAT YOU,RE DOING! God…" as she turned back around to the counter to continue cutting…whatever it was she was cutting.

"SORRY! IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!" riku turned his back angrily on her and went back to attending his slowly boiling concoction upon the stove top. An awkward silence was pounding into sora's head until it was more than he could bare.

"so uh…whatcha guys makin?" a pitiful smile was etched onto his face as the silence continued.

"well I'M making you MY delicious paopu fruit salad." sora's face lightened up at the sound of this. Did she say paopu fruit? Salad? Were sora's ears deceiving him? The paopu fruit was a special fruit designed for one special thing…but that special thing was to keep it so that two peoples hearts would stay connected forever…Was this Kairi's way of pledging her love for him? More and more thoughts raced through Sora's mind at this as a barely noticeable blush was taking over him. Riku turned his head towards them in disgust as he was still attending his…actually glorious smelling concoction. Sora lifted himself from the seat on the kitchen table that he had taken to relax a moment for the tension on his leg was becoming slightly unbearable.

"umm…how about you riku?" as sora slowly hobbled over to the stove where Riku was still cooing over his creation. He peered over his shoulder at what was making such a delicious aroma.

"Heh just wait till I'm done kiddo" a smirk washed upon his face as he ran a hand through soras messy hair. He brought the pot off of the scalding hot stove over to the sink and poured it into an awaiting ceramic bowl. Steam rose like an apparition off of the greenish blue liquid as it sloshed around inside the bowl.

"heh wait till you get a taste of this sora" Riku's silver bangs fell downward onto his forehead covering his eyes as he gave a smirk in Kairi's direction. Sora's eyes opened slightly more than usual in excitement. He had never seen anything like this before, it actually sort of frightend him but you know sora… he had an uncanny aura of simple mindedness about him. Kairi looked from sora to riku and back to sora with a hint of annoyance about her expression.

"HMPH" she pouted as she turned her back on both of them and returned to her precise cutting of the paopu fruit. She reached for a pine apple and began hacking away at it angrily. Fright had taken over both of them as they slowly began shuffling their way backwards from her. Almost they had reached the entry way of the kitchen until Kairi quickly turned around with a menacing stare upon her face.

"WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING?!" Riku and Sora shrunk in fear underneath her almost demonic expression. As she grew closer and closer to them with her menacing expression, she held a hand behind her back. Sora had no clue what it was… he began to panic.

"KAIRI WAIT!!WE WEREN'T GOING ANYWHERE WE SWEAR!!" she kept on stalking towards Sora as if forgetting that Riku even existed. Riku didn't have a problem with this though, heh I mean it was either him or sora and he definitely didn't feel like losing a limb today so he just sat back and watched as sora rose his hands in front of his head for a futile protection. Now Kairi was standing over Sora with a demented look in her eyes.

"KAIRI NO!!PLEASE!! I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!" shouts begging for mercy escaped soras pleading lips as his eyes were closed shut as if awaiting for a deathly blow.

"stop crying you big baby…sheesh…" as she brought her hand from around her back and jammed a spoonful of paopu fruit salad into soras mouth. He opened his eyes and lowered his hands unaware of the glorious mixture of sweet fruits in his mouth. He lost himself as his taste buds were on the verge of exploding from the fruity goodness that Kairi had so "lovingly" jammed into his mouth. A few more works of the jaw and sora softly swallowed as bewilderment overtook him, eyes wide with shock. With that Kairi turned herself and walked back to the counter to finish mixing her glorious combination of fruity delights.

"HOLY HELL THAT STUFF IS GOOD!!" as kairi was back at the counter she turned her head back towards him and showed…that really attractive feminine smile of hers.

"here you go" she had a plateful of paopu fruit salad in her hands as she slowly…overly dramatically placed it upon the kitchen table signaling for sora to sit and eat. Riku got up quickly and ran to the sink where his blueish green liquid was now chilled to a decent temperature.

"you haven't tried mine yet sora" riku tipped the…Drink? Looks like it. He tipped the drink into a clear glass for sora and walked it over to him. Unsure of whether it could be totally delicious or if it could be some evil potion and Riku was secretly an evil witch, he curiously took a whiff of it. It SEEMED non toxic and with that sora took a small sip. As soon as it touched his tongue his eyes grew wide with wonderment. It was almost as if liquid silver was just slithering delicately down his throat…only supposing that liquid silver was an incredibly delicious tasting drink. Sora realized he was drinking this…concoction? Incredibly slowly so he surprisingly took no extra time in savoring the sweet flavor as he chugged the whole glass.

"aaaahhhh…that…was…" sora give a thoughtful look as he cast his eyes to the ceiling softly rubbing his chin. Riku raised his eyebrows in false hope as he realized sora would think his Specialty Blue Sea Fruit Juice would be an utter failure compared to Kairi's Paopu fruit salad. Riku gave a solemn look and cast his eyes upon the floor beneath him awaiting the harsh words that would slip Sora's mouth.

"DELICIOUS!! OH MY GOD!!" Riku brought up his head from looking down so fast that his neck cracked as he let out a painful moan.

"REALLY!!" he gave an ecstatic smile while trying to hide the pain that was violently throbbing in his neck. At this he gave an arrogant smirk towards Kairi and she simply let out a "humph", crossed her arms, and stuck her nose up against him. Moments passed and Kairi regained her lady like posture and asked that happy go lucky kid with the jacked up leg as Riku was jumping up and down with excitement.

"so uh…sora?…whose food do you think is better?" she gave a pleading smile hoping…praying that he would say hers was the better of the two. Sora hung his mouth in surprise as if she said some sort of terrible word. Why would he choose between the foods his two best friends made for him? Its not like he could just choose…

"umm…well…uh…hmm…" Riku settled himself from his frantic up comings and realized the situation at hand. His casual stern look overtook him as he surprisingly agreed to Kairi's statement.

"yeah sora, whose is better?" riku crossed his arms and cast a scornful look towards Kairi. What was going on here? It's as if they hate each other or something…did Sora miss something?

"well…uh…" there's no way sora would be able to get out of this one…

"umm…well? I like both equally. How about that?" a goofy smile spread across sora's face as Riku and Kairi let their mouths hang in shock.

"WHAT?! ARE YOU SURE MINES NOT BETTER?!" kairi replaced the love and hope in her eyes to hurt and pain as she pleaded in an unfortunately vain attempt at winning Sora over.

"haha why? Its not like you guys were making a bet or anything" Sora seemed to have struck some nerves as Riku silently placed a hand to his face as if to hide out the embarrassment. Kairi just looked at the ground and let out a long deep sigh. Kairi turned to Riku and it seemed all previous hatred for Riku had now dispersed.

"Well Riku I guess we're equals when it comes to cooking" her innocent smile washed upon her face and Sora was falling madly in love all over again…oh boy…Sora sat idly by as they continued talking friendly again which was a huge relief from all the previous tension. Suddenly his eyes drooped, just barely catching himself before he fell face first into the ground.

"SORA!" Riku ran over to sora helping him maintain his composure "are you okay?" lifting sora up slinging one arm over his shoulder.

"yeah…im fine.." regaining his stance he slowly turned to go back upstairs and sleep.

"I'm going back to bed…I'll see you guys later"

"okay sora, we'll be back first thing" the soft loving look returned to kairi's eyes and life was good again. Maybe he truly did L-- her.

"see you tomorrow" and with a smile she left just leaving riku and Sora alone for the first in a long time.

"yeah…I guess I'm going too. It's late and you need your rest." and with that Riku shuffled to the front door "I hope your leg gets better" and with that he let himself out.

"(sigh) I'm going back to bed…" slowly sora hobbled back up the stairs into his room and laid his head back down onto his pillow. As he looked out his bedroom window one last time his mind raced about Kairi before he closed his eyes unable to fall asleep. With a sigh after ten minutes he couldn't handle it anymore. He slid his hoody on and hobbled back down the stairs and into the hallway and out his front door.

"It's cold out tonight" sora muttered to himself as he readjusted his hoody around himself. Silently, he shuffled slowly over to the beach where the moon was brightly shining against the water. The thoughts of tonight plagued his mind, you know its just…so much happened in one day. Going to the beach and finding a huge pearl, almost falling to the darkness. Sora shuddered at this thought. And seeing riku and kairi act as if they hated each other over a bet…heh…what a day. Sora smiled and looked out into the ocean to take in the beauty that the moon was casting upon its surface.

He laid himself silently against the cold sand and looked back up at the moon as if it were staring back. He looked at his surroundings and was pleased at the serenity of it all. The waterfall was behind him next to their "secret place" where all their troubles began. The calm water softly kissing the shore and retreating back as if embarrassed. Everything for once was…peaceful.

"nice night for a walk huh?" sora knew who it was without even looking back to see.

"yeah…" sora relished the thought of being alone with Kairi, she was the only thing besides riku that made him feel complete after such a long hard journey. Kairi took a seat next to him and they both sat in silence staring out at the ocean. Kairi scooted closer to him and laid her head onto his shoulder while lacing her fingers into his.

"I love you sora…" Sora blinked hard as his heart began to race and his mind began to get foggy. He curved his lips into a slight smile and cast a look in kairi's direction. He examined everything about her being. Her beautiful dark red hair swaying against the breeze, her soft delicate skin the glowed as the moons rays bounced off of it, and last of all…her beautiful violet eyes. Yes, her eyes. Everytime sora caught them with his, his heart would race. Every single time. Kairi let out a small smile and a soft giggle as she continued to look out to the moonlit ocean.

"I…I love you too" these words seemed harder for sora to say than he expected but no less…gratifying. He turned his head and locked eyes with her, all the feelings in his body suddenly rushed straight into his heart as he scooted even closer to Kairi to feel her warmth upon him. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and laid his head on top of hers as they both stared out to the beautiful moon in front of them.

"…perfect…"

"yeah…just perfect."

Chapter 8

Everything changes

Sora awoke the next day with a stir as the sun tickled his face with its familiar warmth. He let out a long deep sigh letting the space around him know he was awake. He threw his covers off of him, reached for his crutches and hobbled across his room. It was like any other ordinary day. He would get in the shower, put some clothes on, go downstairs and make some coffee, then he would walk out to his backyard, sit and think while watching the remainder of the beautiful sunrise. The wind softly began to pick up, brushing against his gravity defying locks. As he shut his eyes against the sunrise's mystical colors his mind strayed towards Kairi…

SORA'S POV

"(sigh)" I slowly hobbled back into my house while feeling the suns magic warmth against my back. Don't know why but today feels like a good day, it HAS to be more than just ordinary. I decided to walk over to OUR beach today, I dunno it just has more of an atmosphere to it than my backyard, heh and it was the place me and kairi pledged love for each other. Yessssss…As I was walking I looked up ahead and I saw her standing there looking out to the ocean as if she were waiting for someone or perhaps something. Heh this was my perfect chance. I quietly tip toed against the soft earth beneath me until I was right behind her. She still didn't notice I was there so I wrapped my arms around her waist playfully while whispering in her ear.

"didja miss me?" she jumped a little and let out a soft giggle, oh how I loved it when she laughed.

"heh, yeah" she said placing her hands on top of mine "I did". I unwrapped myself from around her and set myself down onto the soft earth pulling her down with me and laid back still staring out at the beautiful ocean.

"something wrong?" I asked

"heh oh nothing, just thinking"

"oh…about what?

"heh…stuff" she said with a grin spreading across her face.

"like?…" as I raised an eyebrow towards her

"hmm…maybe if you catch me I'll tell you" and with that she hopped up to full height and walked away from my grasp.

"aww come on, you know I'm handicapped" I said pouting my bottom lip giving her my puppy eyes.

"aww" she said teasing me. God how I loved that. I grabbed my crutches and attempted to hobble over to her. She was within arms length and I stretched an arm out but she playfully took a step back teasing me even more.

"you're enjoying this aren't you?" the expression on my face turning bland with a small hint of annoyance just barely visible.

"mmhmm!" as her beautiful smile washed upon her face with her beautiful dark red hair flowing in the wind as she bobbed her head up and down.

"fine then" I said sticking my tongue out at her and plopping down onto the soft sand beneath me crossing my arms and looking the other way, her smile fell just like I knew it would. Heh I know how to play this game too ya know.

"aww sora you're no fun…"

"haha I'm handicapped what else would you expect?" well actually not really, my leg feels just great. she started to say something but then looked to the floor in defeat.

"hah, I win this round" I gave her my goofy grin and she launched herself on top of me not caring at all for my hurt leg.

"hehe…I don't care if you're no fun, I'll make the best of it" I didn't even notice the pain that was slowly throbbing in my leg as she sat straddled on top of me playfully whispering into my ear. Hmm…maybe I'm not fully healed after all…oh well I'll take off my bandages anyway. I gulped hard. Really hard. She giggled into my ear softly biting my tender skin. Heh it tickled.

"heh umm…Kairi?…what are you doing?" psh of COURSE I knew what she was doing, heh but it just felt like I should act innocent for her.

"heh what does it look like, silly?" she stared into my eyes with her face just centimeters away from mine. Oh boy…those eyes…those beautiful eyes. And it was then that I had NO idea what was going to happen next. Romantic encounter on a beach or…yup you guessed it.

"AHEM!!" Kairi jumped so hard at this as Riku stood above us, neither of us knowing how he got there. Damn that jump hurt, she landed right on the sore spot on my leg. Riku raised his eyebrow while staring us down with that cool icy glare of his. A soft smirk was plastered to his face. Oh boy…

"heh…and what do we have here?" said Riku as he laid a hand onto his hip.

"AH riku--it…she was…I…she…you…"

"he…I uh…you see…he…you…" Neither of us could come up with anything better than a mouthful of stutters.

"heh save it, I don't wanna know" deep down I know for a fact Riku did but that was just who he was, the cool quiet kind that always minded his own business. Heh I saw this as the perfect chance as revenge for him ruining my perfect moment. Hah I love you Riku but damn you…

"oh really Riku?" I started with a fake pout, " because we would have told you…everything…" deep in my gut I was laughing, Kairi noticed this too as she fought to maintain her composure.

"I…wait…wha?" Riku stared from me to Kairi back to me and then to the ground. With that he stormed off onto the other side of the beach muttering and grabbing his hair in frustration. (sigh) you gotta love that kid.

The sun was way high in the sky so it was probably noon. Me Riku and Kairi were at our usual spot at the paopu tree. Heh, just like good old times.

"hey sora?"

"yeah Riku?"

"the other day…didn't you say you had something to talk to us about?"

"you know…now that you mention it…I did" My mind raced back to yesterday as Riku's words triggered my mind.

"where are you going sora?" a curious kairi approached sora.

"eh I think I'm done for the day, if you guys want when your done you can come over to my house. I gotta talk to you guys about something" end flashback…

"(sigh) well…" I started staring out at the endless sea. Gosh they were really paying attention, I could actually feel their eyes burrowing into my skin.

"well that letter my parents left me…there was more than just a letter"

"really? What else was there?" Kairi scooted closer to me eyeing me carefully while Riku leaned back against the tree with his eyes closed and arms crossed, inhaling every word that I was saying.

"there was a picture of me with my parents…heh you can only imagine how I took that…" Kairi stared straight into my eyes with hurt as if she was feeling all the pain I was feeling. Riku remained silent against the tree. What is he a statue or something?

"yeah and they left me 10,000 munny"

"WHAT?!" kairi and riku said at the same time.

"whoa how did you do that?" I said looking from riku to kairi and back to riku.

"uh…coincidence?" kairi started shrugging it off with her shoulders.

"but wait…they left you…10,000 money…?" Riku stated and stared at me once again with his icy glare but this time with a little more shock. It was true, even though he was my best "guy" friend, whenever he did that it gave me the chills.

"so what are you going to do with it then?"

"actually I've been thinking pretty hard about it, but I figured I would just spend it on my necessities. Food, water, all that peachy keen stuff." I ended with a smile.

"but im just gonna put it away for now, I don't really need it right away". before I even realized it, heh…Kairi had her fingers laced into mine and she was leaning on my shoulder. (sigh) shes a magical creature, she is.

"(sigh) but I'm bored guys, what do ya wanna do?" the sun was still high in the sky.

"hmm…well school starts in a week…oh joy" riku's enthusiasm was so dreadful that you could find more cheer in a graveyard. Heh leave it to Riku to be so dark and depressing.

"well how about we go to the mall? Maybe some of our friends will be there, I mean we all haven't seen you or Riku for like 2 years so I'm thinking that they miss you" she lit up her face with that smile of hers again…oh boy. But something sorta told me she just wanted to go to the mall to get me to buy stuff for her, but hey could you blame her? And the thing was that we were all old enough to drive. Did I forget to mention that my parents also left a nice car for me? Even though they're long gone…I guess they knew that I would be coming back sooner or later. I peeled off my bandages and walked along side kairi and riku back to my house. There was a slight jolt of pain with every step but oh well… we reached my house and I opened the garage and took a seat into my nice Chrysler Pacifica. It was a really nice car, thanks mom and dad. I couldn't help but smile as I turned the keys and let the car roar into life.

"oooooo nice car" you could tell the excitement in her voice, heh I sorta dug it. It made me feel kinda cool for once in my lame life. Well only saying before like…two years ago.

"yeah dude this is a pretty sweet ride" say WHAT?! RIKU TOO?! Oh I HAD to feel special now. Riku was just never impressed with anything so yeah…I had to feel like I was "all that in a bag of chips". Lame right? I know…I know…

I backed out of the driveway carefully (I'm still new at this ya know) and almost hit my mailbox…nice… after that I switched it to DRIVE and it was smooth sailing from then on. I turned right onto the bridge that connected our little smaller island to the larger mainland.

"(sigh) I just love the wind blowing in my hair"

"huh" oh god…I just had to look over didn't I? DIDN'T I?! there was kairi with her perfect self again. All I could do was just watch as the warm air rushed into the car only to meet with her crimson locks causing them to flow like a deep river of red. Heh wow talk about deep.

"SORA WATCH OUT!"

"what?" I was driving in the wrong lane.

"SHIT!!" I turned the wheel back to get into the right lane to avoid getting hit by an oncoming car

"WATCH WHERE YOUR GOING JACKASS!" I slumped down in my seat with my heart still racing in my chest. Damn you kairi and your beautiful looks. Maybe it was true what some people say…Looks can kill.

"whew…is everyone okay?"

"just fine…just fine…" riku was clutching his seat like a kitty cat holding on for dear life. Quite humorous if I do say so myself.

"owie…" heh yup we're all good. I turned off the bridge and turned right onto Paopu lane. Gosh that mall is huge, I could see it from all the way over here, and wouldn't ya know? We're still two miles away from it.

'THERE IT IS!!YAAAY" I dunno…Kairi seemed maybe a little TOO ecstatic about this…(sigh) I know this is gonna be hell for me. Riku better help me with this or his ass is toast. Heh…FRENCH toast. God I love that stuff. Well anywho… a couple minutes passed and the already huge mall was getting bigger and bigger. Just great… I turned into the left section of parking lot A and tried to get as close as I could to the door so I wouldn't have to hear kairi complain. Heh even IF I thought it was kinda cute.

"whew…okay here we are" I slipped out my keys from the ignition and hopped out of the car. It was still rather early in the day. Given from the sun position I could say maybe three or four o'clock. Oh well, who cares?

"riku…? Something wrong?" I turned around to see riku staring at the mall with his mouth slightly open and his eyes wider than usual.

"COME ON GUYS LETS GO!!" psh…easy for her to say, shes the one that's gonna make me buy and carry all her stuff for her…

"(sigh) lets go riku… our hell awaits us" I still don't know why I came here, but its not like I could say no to kairi could I? I shrugged and waved a hand in front of riku's face to snap him back to reality.

"its…so…big…" hah oh boy I don't think I can resist this.

"that's what she said" I doubled over laughing trying my hardest to maintain my composure but nope…didn't work.

"hahaha(sigh) come on riku, lets get going, kairi's already at the doors" I grabbed riku's hand and tugged on him to usher him forward.

As soon as we stepped through the sliding doors all of us were bum rushed by the sound of shuffling footsteps, ruffling shopping bags, and that annoying elevator music.

"why the hell do they play music like this?" to this question I definitely had no answer to.

"maybe its mind control" I looked over to riku to see him smirking his once-in-a-lifetime smirk. Heh I guess riku DID know how to be happy. He was always so quite and predictable. Who knows? Maybe kairi and I can get him to be jubilant and spontaneous. Uh oh big words…

"so where to first?" I rubbed my chin lazily as I scanned the mall map and down and up again.

"hmm…lets see what we got here…" riku joined me in scratching chins as he also scanned the map for something to spark his interest.

"I think I'm gonna go to Hot Topic. I need some new shirts and what not. I'll catch you guys later." Riku staged himself to full height and began walking towards the escalators that would bring him to his destination. I looked over for a second and then back to the map.

"hmm…well there's some movies playing in the theatre on the 6th floor, there's an arcade and--"

"hehe…lets go to victoria's secret."

"theres a food court and a…wait…what" I could feel the heat rushing into my cheeks as she said that…oh boy I must look like a tomato now…

"hehe I said we should go to victoria's secret." she flashed me that smile of hers and a wink. I looked away searching desperately for something, ANYTHING to avert my attention but damnit…she had me. Before I knew it she had pressed herself against me with her arms around my neck.

"you could watch me put on lingerie." she ended with a giggle as she whispered into my ear causing my whole body to tingle and my face to turn beet red all over again. Damn you Kairi, you know how to play this game pretty good. But I do too. A sly smirk stole itself a spot on my face.

"would you like that sora?" she gave me her puppy eyes to try and break me. It almost did, but I knew better.

"(sigh) eh maybe later" I gave her a blank, bored answer that she definitely was not hoping for. Haha she looked kind of hurt after I said it.

"aww are you sure you don't want to see me in a bra and panties?" she gave the pout again. Oh god…I don't know how much more of this I can take. I slightly cringed enough for her to notice and I knew she could tell that I was breaking. She began whispering into my ear once more.

"I'll take you in the dressing room with me." DAMN!!THIS GIRL JUST WONT QUIT!! Talk about your everyday gold digger. A few people around were giving us odd looks until I heard a voice calling out her name.

"KAIRI!HEY KAIRI! OVER HERE!" she broke herself from me and looked around to see who it was. But oh my god…

"NAMINE!" she ran up and hugged her. Thank god for namine getting me out of that mess. As they talked a guy with blonde hair, blue eyes, and looked just like me walked up to them carrying her bags. Just then he looked over to me.

"s…sora? SORA HEY!" he ran up to me after setting down namine's bags.

"r…roxas? Is that you? But…how…you…she…" I was at a loss for words as looked at namine to him and then back to her.

"haha dude I know I know but get this. Me and namine, it turns out that this whole nobody thing and organization 13 was a huge set up. Us members…" he curved his fingers up and down twice "are actually real people, we were brain washed."

"wait…so then…who are the people who did all of this?"

"it was xemnas, he was the only REAL nobody and he plotted all of this. He brainwashed everyone at different levels that knew about the nobody's just to get you to fall into his hands. But…you killed him, you and riku did." I looked down at my hands as these last words struck me.

I killed him…I killed him…I killed him….I killed him…

"sora?"

I killed him…

"sooraaaaa"

I killed him…

"SORA!"

"huh? What?"

"you okay?"

"oh…yeah…I'm great"

"oh alright…well yeah the reason me and namine are here is because we were sent back to our real families. The odd thing was that I couldn't even remember my mom or dad, but neither can anyone else that was in organization 13. Everything before we were kidnapped is a blur now. But well namine and I just decided to go on a little…date you could say." he nudged me in the ribs softly giving a slight smirk as he did so.

"what about you and kairi?"

"huh?"

"you and kairi. What's going on with you two?"

I looked away from roxas to where kairi and namine were doing their "girl talk". She was probably filling her in on what went on.

"well…uh…you see….I…I…"

"haha say no more my friend, I can already tell." he could? What is he psychic or something?

"heh it's written all over your face, aww my wittle sowa has a wittle kwush." he pinched my cheek. Quite frankly it was getting rather annoying but I decided to just humor him.

"yeah yeah, now get off me" I smacked his hand away and squinted my eyes at him. Heh he looked just a little bit scared. What a wimp. But hey, I gotta thank him and namine for getting me out of that mess with kairi though. I sighed.

"thanks a ton roxas, kairi was about to eat me alive if it weren't for you guys."

"what do you mean?"

"uh…well…lets just say she showed me a different side of her" I could feel the heat rising in my face again.

"oh…" his face lit up "ooooohhhhh…haha I gotcha" he finished with a wink but I couldn't shake the feeling something bad was gonna happen and that he was going to be the cause of it.

"so how about us men" he puffed out his chest, "ditch the chicks and have some fun" haha I gotta say this kid is pretty funny. But what the hell, I'm game.

"indeed we shall" I said puffing out my chest as well. Whew, at least I won't have to buy kairi anything. Thank god for roxas.

"hey ladies, we'll be back later, why don't we meet at the theatre at five o'clock? Its three right now"

"oh okay" namine seemed to have no problem with it but kairi…well she looked sort of defeated. (sigh) I guess im going to have to make it up to her later…damn my pitiful disposition…

"later kids" I waved off to them with a wink and me and roxas went straight for the arcade.

Damn why did this mall have to be so big? We went past five food booths, seven restrooms, three game stores, and a guy wearing a chicken costume until we got to the escalator leading into the arcade. Unfortunately for our stupid selves…we ran the whole way

"(pant pant) wait…wait roxas…(pant) gimme a sec"

"(pant) yeah…all that damn running…goddamn…"

"(pant)okay I'm good"

"(pant) yeah me too"

I took a step onto the escalator and it was smooth sailing from there. Few seconds later I stepped off and there it was. The arcade. Damn… This place was pretty awesome if I do say so myself, but only because it was so freakin big. It took up the whole sixth floor of this side of the mall.

"I…uh…wow…" I was at a loss for words. I mean what else could I say? It was too beautiful for words.

"hey…HEY! Earth to sora!"

"………" I could swear there was drool coming out of my mouth.

(SMACK)

"OW! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?!"

"heh snapped you out of it didn't it?"

"yeah…but still…" oooohhhh this kid is gonna get it soooo bad.

ROXAS POV

Wow this kid is totally spacing out on me. Haha I had to smack him just to snap him out of it…well I didn't HAVE to but it felt like a good idea. So we went and walked up to the cashier to get some tokens and all that other good crap. I never noticed but inside this kids pair of ripped blue jeans there was a huge bulge. GODDAMN THAT WAS MUNNY?! Thank god it wasn't something else…Looks like I'm in for a fun night.

"daaaamn dude, where did you get all that money?!"

"heh…just a little…gift from my parents"

"tch…shit my parents are stingy as hell…lucky" I looked at the ground in defeat. Oh well my parents gave me a reasonable amount too. Maybe not 500 munny like this other kid, but a much less, much unsatisfying 200 munny. It was enough to get me by right?

"alrighty…so where are we gonna start?" I squinted my eyes over the vicinity. This place was bigger than I thought. I mean damn I couldn't even see the back wall. I saw a smile bust out on his face.

"you up for some DDR?"

"DDR? Hah are you KIDDING me? I'm the master at that game" I chuckled and pointed a thumb at myself. But hey, I was, I am, and I forever will be the master of dance dance revolution.

"oh is that so?" I saw that smirk of his, I knew I was in for a treat with this one.

"yes that is so" I stepped up onto the platform with my arms crossed.

"you ready for a spanking little boy?"

"only if your ready to get stomped on first." He gave me that damn smirk of his again. Did I do something when I smacked him? Haha.

The machine's speakers rumbled.

"FIRST STAGE…READY?! HERE WE GO"

The arrows started pouring in out of nowhere, but it was no problem for me at all. Up left down left right left right. Piece of cake. I looked over to see sora keeping up with me. Damn he didn't even look like he was trying. Alright and here's where the tricky part comes in. the notes started coming in combos as we entered the mid section of the song. Notes started pouring themselves out faster and faster along with the beat. Shit…a sweat drop slid down my face. I looked over for a sec at sora. Heh rookie was sweating too. Before I even noticed it we had a crowd growing.

"wow they're good."

"they haven't missed a note yet"

"YEAH GO SORA!"

Say WHAT?! GO SORA?! Oh HELL no I can't let that rookie get more publicity than me. I had no idea who it was but I have to say that it got me just a little bit ticked. Was it me or was it that kairi girl? I smirked as I began to throw in some tricks with the song. There was a slight pause and I hopped onto the bar behind me and flipped off of it right back on track not even missing a single note. Hah hey the don't call me the king for nothing. I smirked at sora. I knew he couldn't take it but damn he was still keeping up with me.

"GO ROXAS!WHOO!" heh that's right. SAY my name

"WE LOVE YOU SORA!"

"ROXAS YOU DA MAN BRA!"

"KEEP IT UP SORA!"

Our crowd was huge by now. Oh no… we're still tied and the songs almost over. I looked over with my sweat drops still coming down. Haha his face was just as wet as mine. I guess rookie here isn't as bad as I thought. The song took another pause before the breakdown and I did I handstand to hit the note within the rest. DAMN SORA! He pulled off a handstand also. The crowd was roaring now and it was getting sorta hard to concentrate, but that's not gonna stop me. I'm the king after all. I kept my eyes glued to the screen.

"getting tired rookie?" I smirked and kept on hitting every note that came up.

"hah you gotta be kidding me" he flashed that grin of his as we both got up on the bar and we both flipped off hitting the very last note of the song. The machine rumbled.

"YOUR NO ORDINARY FELLOW"

"that's right I'm not an ordinary fellow, because I'm the best" I winked at him and punched him in his shoulder. Rookie here wasn't half as bad as I thought he would be.

"heh not too shabby eh rookie?"

"heh not at all"

"ROXAS! SORA!" who the hells calling my name? I looked around but I couldn't see over any of the heads that were still crowding around us patting us on the backs. But then I saw a quick flash of blonde.

"NAMINE!"

"KAIRI!" I saw rookie push through the crowd to get to that red head of his.heh I just knew that those two had something going on. Well at least he's got good taste in girls, after all she was pretty cute. I pushed past a few people and stopped dead in front of her…my dream girl.

"you did great up there, I never knew you could play so well"

"heh there's a lot of things you don't know about me" I flashed her my famous grin and held her chin in my hand. Before I even knew what I was doing, my hands found themselves around her waist and I was kissing her. Mmmm…blueberry lip gloss, my favorite. This girl has EVERYTHING. She pulled back and smiled. Gosh she was cute, but I swear it felt like it was getting so much hotter in this place. Maybe it was just me.

"where's our other little couple?" heh they are a couple aren't they?

"well they're not quite a couple." namine frowned just a little bit at this. oh really? Maybe I was wrong then.

"over there sitting on a bench. Lets go" she smiled and grabbed my hand and led me through the slowly dispersing crowd of people. I looked down. Gosh her hands are so soft. I'm not one for fancy pants lovey dovey mushy romance bullcrap but I dunno…this girl might be changing all of that.

"hey rookie"

"hey there noob" heh I'm liking this kid more and more.

"aww come on guys, be nice" that kairi girl put her hands on her waist and wagged a finger at sora. Haha what was she, his mother or something? I clasped my hands together and rocked back and forth on my heels and made a baby voice.

"yeaw sowa you gotta be nice"

"haha shut up…(sigh) retard"

"takes one to know one"

Haha man I just love messing with this kid, hes like that dysfunctional brother I've always wanted. What can I say? He even looks like me.

"hey sora" that kairi girl was talking again. What could she want now?

"heh yeah?

"wanna go buy me a soda?" she latched onto his arm and snuggled against him. Wooooow…are you serious?!

"hmm…fiiiiine, lets go guys" wow what a sucker. If he's gonna give in whenever she touches him then he's in for a rough life. (sigh) poor guy.

So we walked out of the arcade with some people still yelling our names and patting us on the backs. About time we got out of there, I thought we were gonna get eaten alive. And I WAS feeling a little bit hungry.

"so where are we gonna eat? I'm starved" I looked around the mall hallway looking for a food vendor while rubbing my stomach.

"hmm…well I'm in the mood for Chinese." CHINESE?! Man rookie here is full of surprises. I LOVE Chinese food.

"YES!!CHINESE!! China Wok here we come" I couldn't help but smile. I mean hey, Chinese food is the bomb diggity.

All that action made me forget how big this mall really was. I gotta say I was sorta disheartened about it. I mean we had to walk a loooooong way just to get to the food court. Past eight bathrooms, 4 game stores, 5 kiosks, a general store, and a spaceman to be exact. I could only stare at how big this court was.

"holy…" heh I mean what else could I say? I mean if you thought the arcade was big then you should really take a look at this place. On the left there were Chinese restaurants. MY FAVORITE! To the right Japanese. There was basically every culture food you could think of in here.

My mouth started watering.

"LATER KIDS!" I dashed for the Chinese section and stared through the glass with my mouth still watering. Heh how pathetic could ya get?

"I'll have some egg rolls, and some chow mein. OH don't forget the bourbon chicken and the fried rice. And OH--"

"roxas?

"and some fried pork and--"

"roooxaaas?"

"and some steamed shrimp. OH and--"

'ROXAS!!"

"huh?" haha wow I'm such a loser. I mean really… I left my girlfriend, my friend and HIS girlfriend just for food? (sigh) what's the world coming to?

"heh oh…sorry" I grinned and rubbed the back of my head.

"(sigh) your such a mess you know that?" she gave me that grin of hers and I just about lost it. I mean really, how could you not fall for such beautiful blonde hair and a gorgeous pair of ocean blue eyes? Oh god I'm getting sappy…see what this girl does to me?

"heh I know I know" I saw rookie and his girl walk up from behind namine. Gosh could they possibly be any more oblivious? I mean its so OBVIOUS that they like each other. What are they? Retarded or something? I pulled namine into a whisper for a second.

"hey…do you think we should try and play matchmaker with them?" I hitched my thumb in sora and kairi's direction.

"hmm…yeah I think so, but I say we give them a little time first."

"well…if you say so." before I knew it little miss kairi and rookie here went and grabbed a table. Eh I was fine with that. You gotta admit though, they did make a cute little couple. I smirked at myself and turned towards my…goddess…

"heh…sooooooo…school starts in a week." I don't know why I couldn't just look her in the eyes. Those beautiful ocean blue eyes. So instead I just looked at the floor rubbing the back of my head as if it were more interesting. I mean wow look at those tile designs.

"um…yeah…I'm actually kind of excited though" gosh that voice of hers was like a silver bell. she lifted up my chin and with her soft hand and smiled at me. I could feel the heat in my cheeks coming up. Man I bet I look like a tomato…

"heh you're so cute roxas" huh? Say what? Im cute? Heh what can I say? At least this girls got good taste. Before I could stop myself I grabbed her hands in mine and pulled her into a soft kiss. Wow…I wonder what got a hold of me. After what seemed like a forever I pulled back from her. Oh boy I was feeling like a tomato again. Mmm…blueberry. I touched my lips and FINALLY looked into her eyes. I think I might have done something wrong. She was just sorta…standing there as if she'd seen a ghost. But after a few seconds I saw her smile. Man that smile. I'm telling ya kids, this girl is like an angel in disguise.

"ay you wan' yo food?" oops I forgot all about my food. Alriiiight time to eat. WHOO!

I snatched my food and slammed the munny on the counter and ran over to the table. I swear I saw a flash of red go by while I ran but I just sorta ignored it. I plopped myself into a chair and started wolfing down my food. I'm a guy, it's what I do.

SORA'S POV

Well Roxas sorta decided to come over to the table and well…what I saw was pretty…odd. He was just wolfing down his food like an animal. I sorta made a face like this à Oo. Quite strange if you ask me but hey, he is who he is. I've been thinking a lot though, like where could Riku be?

"hmm…I wonder where Riku is…"

"oh yeah…I wonder where he's at…" Kairi put one of her hands up to her chin in thought.

"I'll give him a call, excuse me for a sec." I smiled at her and walked off towards the restroom so I could be a little less distracted. I just started punching in Riku's numbers until my phone started ringing. It was Riku calling…weird. I answered.

"hey Riku" I smiled into the phone. "I was just about to call you--"

"sora! Get out of the mall NOW!" I could feel my eyebrow starting to raise.

"huh?…uh what do you mean?"

"I DON'T HAVE TIME TO EXPLAIN! JUST GRAB KAIRI AND RUN! I'LL MEET YOU AT THE CAR!" I heard him scream and the line went silent. Oh no…what could be going on? I didn't dare question Riku. I ran back to the table and looked around. As I looked around I could feel a sweat drop cascading down my cheek. I looked straight at Kairi and I knew she could tell something was wrong. Non to surprising, Roxas was still wolfing down his food with Namine sitting by dreamily watching him eat.

"What's wrong Sora?"

"you guys…we have to get out of here now."

Roxas stopped eating long enough to look at me with a mouth full of food.

"whuuft?" he swallowed and tried again.

"what? Why?"

" there's no time to explain, Riku just called me and it sounds like something bad's about happen. He said he would meet us at my car and explain everything." I could see Roxas smirk out of the corner of my eye.

"heh this is a joke right? Haha your so funny sora." I felt my eye twitch in annoyance but I would deal with him later. All of a sudden the floor began to tremble. I looked around and I could see everyone else in the court looking rather worried. The trembling began to grow more and more violent as the seconds passed.

"Do you still think I'm joking Roxas? Now lets get OUT of here." I almost yelled but I kept the majority of it in. I glanced at Kairi and grabbed her by the wrist and started off at a run to get to the nearest exit. I looked behind me to see Roxas doing the same with Namine. I took a hard left at the first intersection of the mall hallways and headed straight for the door with Roxas and Namine still close behind. I threw it open and held my keys in the air and pressed the panic button to try and find where my car could be in this maze of automobiles. There was beeping to my left and I ran as fast as I could not daring to think twice about what could be happening. I've been in enough of an adventure to know not to dare question anything when something bad is about to happen. Just think and run. I saw Riku running towards my car from the other side and I waved my other hand up for him to see me. Apparently I was still holding Kairi's hand. As we all got closer to my car I could still feel the ground trembling beneath me, but I noticed Riku. I heard Namine and Kairi gasp in shock behind me and I heard Roxas moan.

"oh...god…Riku what happened?!"

His cheek had a large cut on it and he was bleeding from his mouth. I saw him holding his ribs so I guessed that a few of them might have been broken. His clothes were tattered and there was a large rip on the front of his shirt with some cuts underneath.

"no time to explain." He began panting. "Get in the car and get us as far away from here as possible."

I heard him pant even harder and I could tell he was fighting to stay conscious as he stumbled a little bit trying to open the car door. He climbed in first to get the very back row of seats to himself while Namine and Roxas sat in the second row with me and Kairi in the front. I thrust the keys into the ignition and put the car in reverse and began to back out of the parking space. I was in the clear and I stepped on the gas and began making my way from the mall. I looked into my rear view mirror and saw Riku laying down in the back row.

"okay Riku…What's going on here?" I furrowed my eyebrows while switching my sight from Riku in the mirror to the road in front of me. Getting in a car crash was DEFINITELY unwelcome at this point.

"I saw him…" my eyes widened and I felt my heart begin to race. I glanced over to the left and stopped in an empty parking lot and turned around and stared Riku straight in the eyes.

"no…not him, please tell me it wasn't him Riku…ANYONE but him." Riku's eyes glazed over with concern as he sat up in the backseat with a grunt.

"…"

"RIKU! WAS IT XEMNAS?!" I screamed at the top of my lungs at him without even thinking. But all I saw him do was close his eyes in pain as he coughed up blood in attempt to answer.

"yeah…It was him." Riku began his explanation of what happened since he left Kairi and Sora at the mall map.

"It started after I left you guys. I walked up the escalators towards the top floor to get to roof of the mall where I could just sit and relax and wait for you guys to get done."

I quickly switched glances with kairi, almost forgetting that she, Namine, and Roxas were in the car with us.

"I heard a strange buzzing noise behind me and I turned around. Before I knew it Xemnas had knocked me out. I couldn't remember what happened after that but I woke up tied to a chair. I was stuck like that for an hour and a half inside some room that only mall employees could get into. I heard some cheering and yelling and a whole bunch of beeping and stuff so I guessed that I was somewhere close to the arcade. I tried yelling for help but no one heard me. But then Xemnas came in through a door beside me and started speaking to me. He told me that he would get his revenge on us and that he would destroy us all. After that he just walked out and left me there alone. I was in too much shock to have even asked him how he came back. I kept trying to escape but thankfully enough…I still had the ability to hold a key blade. After it came to me I cut myself free, and I called your number. Only a few seconds after I got a hold of you, I heard footsteps from outside the door. I knew it was him, so I braced myself and began hitting him with everything I had when he opened the door." he took a deep breath and continued. "I began hitting him from the side but he blocked everything I threw at him with those beam sword things that he had. He caught me on my leg and punched me straight in my face and I flew back into the wall. He had really sharp nails…that's why I have this cut on my face. After I hit the wall I was lost for a second, I could hardly tell what happened. It was only for a second but that was more than enough time for him to run to me and grab me around my throat and raise me up against the wall. I was starting to lose consciousness while he suffocated me. But he just laughed and he tore his nails across my stomach and chest before he started hammering punches into my rib cage to make sure I didn't pass out so I could feel every hit. That sick bastard…" he stopped and took another deep breath.

"I kicked him away from me and slashed him with my key blade. He flew back into a pile of boxes but I didn't dare look back to see if I did any damage to him…I ran…as fast as I could to get out of there. I made it to the parking lot just fine, and I started looking for your car. I knew I was close but I couldn't find it. But then it started going off and then I saw you guys running towards it. I broke off at a run and got to your car. And well…here we are. But I cant get his words out of my head. He said he would get revenge on us and destroy us all. Sora this can't be good at all. Now that he's back he'll do anything and everything within his power to get back at us…but he's even stronger than before. Just look what he did to me…"

I was taking everything in as if I was breathing underwater, but I could swear my heartbeat was racing at least 500 beats per second. He looked out his window and I turned back around in my seat still breathing hard with eyes wide with shock. I saw Kairi look at me and she looked as if she was on the verge of tears. She reached out and grabbed my hand in hers and I slowly turned my head and my eyes met with hers. Those light violet eyes of hers were so beautiful. I never really took the time to appreciate them more than I did now because now there was actually a possibility that I might never see them again.

"He can get us at any time Sora…" Riku continued to look out his window.

"we have to be prepared to fight for our lives again…"

I let out a very long very deep breath as I felt my chest rise and fall in rhythm. This whole time I had been gripping the steering wheel and I had no idea how white and blood lacking my knuckles had become. I took one last glance at everybody in the car and nodded at Riku as I raised my hand in front of me just over the dashboard of the car. My hand went warm as a blinding light surrounded it and within that light materialized the key blade. I grasped the silver handle delicately and looked the blade up and down.

"I remember the first time I ever held this thing…" I turned in my seat and smiled towards Riku.

"It was on that night when everything changed…" Riku smiled also

"just about a year ago when I first came into the organization." I nearly forgot that Roxas still existed but I smiled at him too.

"Roxas…" I stared him hard in the eyes as my smile faded.

"we're going to need your help. Can you summon your key blades?"

"tch of COURSE I can summon my key blades" he rolled his eyes at me and smirked. It was hard to believe how he could still be so cocky with such a critical situation at hand. He held both of his hands out and in them materialized MY original key blades: the Oathkeeper and the Oblivion. He smirked that ignorant smirk of his and let them disappear. Namine sat next to him looking out the window. It was rather surprising how quiet she had been this whole time. Same with Kairi.

I looked at my other hand. My other empty hand. My other empty key bladeless hand. I glanced over to Roxas one last time and tried calling on another key blade, I mean if Roxas could do it then maybe Riku and I could too. My eyes shut and I began thinking, calling out for another blade. I felt something begin to stir within my left hand but it wasn't the same as with the warmth of the kingdom key in my right. This one felt…cold. Evil you could even say. I opened my eyes and I saw the monstrosity that was now in my left hand. It was almost like the oblivion except though it was beautiful…I could tell just how evil and putrid it was. I looked up and down its white sheen as I grasped its white handle. Yeah, it was a white oblivion. Yeah I know how evil it could be because I heard legends of a legendary blade like this. "only one with the purest heart but the most hatred and darkness could wield a blade with such power as this. Only one with enough light and dark to balance each other out is capable of wielding an instrument of such power." I looked at both key blades in my hands. But while I was at it I changed my kingdom key to the black oblivion. The duo now in my hands was a very beautiful, yet deadly combination. My eye lids dropped as I lowered my head in thought of all the dangers that were indeed possible from this point on. But this time my war will probably be fought on the home front…no other worlds and no other people to help this time. This time it may only be just me, Roxas, and Riku. I turned back in my seat again and looked at everybody in the car. Each had eyes wide all staring at my white oblivion.

"sora…how did you…" Roxas tried to get the words out but all I got out of him was just a word here and there.

"truth be told Roxas…I don't know, I saw you with your key blades so I tried the same thing."

"but yours look so much cooler! No fair"

(sigh) I swear this guy was such a kid sometimes.

"okay…we should get going again. But where should we go. You guys go any ideas?"

"as of now, we're pretty much in the red zone. I say we keep things on the down low for now…if anything we should just relax until the next time we're going to see 'him' again."

"sounds right I guess." I put the car in drive and I made my way back to our houses on the island. Why was all of this happening. And it all started just as I Thought Things Were Normal Again…

--

So yeah this is my first fan fic. dont be too harsh pweeze :3 dont worry though, if you liked it then i'll update soon. but as far as the style the story will be written in. im thinking i'll write it in parts. like this was part numero UNO! and there were 8 chapters in it. Part 2 will probably have about the same number of chapters in it. but as far as what im planning this story will probably go on for a while:3 and i made sure that everything was better in my writing so as of now i shall leave you all to write my newest section.

Reviews are always welcome:3 critiques, advice, and praisea happy me and a shoutout to you


	2. While I wait for an ending

_Quick authors quote, okay so this is the second part in my story. if you read before then its going to be coming in parts. otherwise i would be busting out chapters every 5 seconds. id rather wait and make it bigger that way those who bother to read it get more out of the story ya know? well i want to thank those who reviewed the last part of this pile of poop i call a story hah jk..ahem...so yeah onto the story and i dont own KH TT or any of the songs or bands that i used in this chapter_

* * *

I Thought Things Were Normal Again Part 2: Your Dusk Met My Twilight

_You know… all this just __**had** to happen as soon as I was thinking to myself that everything was going back to normal again. Yeah it was stupid of me wasn't it? You know, all those precious things that I had been dreaming for, cherishing every thought in the back of my head. And I will admit that I've been dreaming for this moment to come for the longest time. No more psychotic maniacs trying to control the world and whatnot. No more traveling to far off worlds. No more Nobodies. No more Heartless. No more searching for my loved ones. No more nothing… But I guess I was a fool to think that now wasn't I? and it was all beginning to happen as soon as __I Thought Things Were Normal Again._

Sora's POV

Chapter 9

Things Are Changing:4 days left…

Yeah, this morning started just like most others since the mall incident. Wanna know exactly what it was like? Well lets just say that it was like staring down the barrel of a gun three inches from your face, just waiting for the guy on the other end to pull the trigger. Every morning I would wake up terrified for my life, hoping…praying that I would be able to make it through the day. But every day that passed seemed to be getting easier as I woke up in my empty house and stared outside my window at the blood red morning sunrise. Yeah it had been an infinity in my eyes, maybe three days in yours, since the mall tremor. But wouldn't you know, school started in just four more days. I swear it was like being a child waiting for your mother to return from the story with all the cookies and candies that you had been pestering her for. In other words, time passed like a snail for me.

"(sigh) Another day…" I thought aloud as I scanned the sunrise from my bedroom window while resting my head on my palm. Soon enough I would have to go to Riku and Kairi's houses to check on them, so I cherished what little time I had before that inevitable battle for my life took place. I sighed as I climbed from my bed only clad in a pair of my boxers as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes while walking into my bathroom for a shower. Each day I had been so tense so maybe a shower would be the perfect thing to calm me down. I climbed in and felt the sting of hot water against my flesh. Can't really say that it was soothing but it helped to get my mind off the things that were coursing in and out every second. I stood there, still as a statue in my shower place, but I could swear…I felt a tear drip down my cheek. I was scared as I whispered to myself.

"This could be the end…"

Yes…I will admit that I was scared. Scared for my life… Scared for Riku's life… Scared for Kairi's life. I was scared and I told myself I was going to hold on no matter what. I climbed out of the shower and wrapped a towel around my waist and slid a hand across the foggy mirror and I took a hard look into my own face. And an even harder look into my own eyes. But it was plainly seen. Fear…oh that cursed emotion. How I loathed it…how I _**hated**_ it…oh so so so very much. But as I stared at myself in the mirror, I could only get lost in my thoughts as memories and possible future happenings plagued my mind. What I saw wasn't very pretty, but I guess it's not always a good thing to have an incredibly vivid imagination such as my own. I shook my head and void my mind of the thoughts and walked out of my bathroom still draped with a towel around my waist. As I opened the door an unfriendly rush of cool air pelted itself at me. My eyes tense I couldn't help but not feel a thing as I stalked to my bedroom.

Just as usual my room was a catastrophe. I never was the clean kind of guy anyways. But something just seemed different. I actually decided to pick up some of my clothes and fold them, I threw some wadded up papers into my trashcan. I got a hold of the broom and actually swept my wooden floor. I'll admit this new motivation was sorta scaring me along with a few other things. But if by chance this day be my last, I'll make things ship shape just before I go.

Bedroom cleaned and clothes on, I decided it would be a good time to go check on Riku and Kairi. As I walked down my hallway and down the flight of stairs I grabbed my Ipod that I bought with some of the munny my parents left me. Thanks mom and dad, I hope you're okay. Your little boy is all grown up now.

I smiled for the first time in three days as I flipped through some of my favorite bands. Complimentary of Riku for getting me these awesome songs and bands. I decided on something that could fill me with indescribable rage. It was better that I listen to something like that rather than not have any adrenaline driving me at all in case of a fight. With Xemnas back I'm sure the nobodies could decide to come back and find me at any second. Just the song that had all these qualities I chose "_Before The Storm_" by The Glorious Fall.(band myspace is /thegloriousfall . GO LISTEN TO THEM)

And now with earphones plugged in alongside my best friend and source of light, the sun, I carried on towards Riku's house first.

Lucky for me the walk was not at all that long, four to five minutes at most. Even luckier for me Riku just happened to already be outside his house. I saw him waist deep in the water as his house was right next to the shore with his key blade in his hand, staring out towards the horizon. Something seemed different though. As he turned around I noticed his usually empty hand, void of any sort of weapon, now had another blade within its grasp.

"nice blade" I called to him while he trudged back to the shore to meet with me.

"thanks" I have to admit, it was a really nice blade. Possibly comparable to that of my new white oblivion. I held out my hands and called upon my duet of death. I even went as far as to give each one a name. For all I knew they were going to be a part of me for a long time. I took a look at my left hand at the white beauty and then at my right at the black goddess.

I held up my left hand, "Twilight."

I held up my right hand, "Dusk"

Riku held up his right hand, "Way to Dawn"

He then held up his left hand, "Fallen Midnight"

I blinked twice at the blade in his left hand. Yeah…it was beautiful. The perfect blade to slice open any adversary. It was black and white zig zagged with a dark blue handle that encircled a central bar for you to hold onto. I'll admit…I was amazed at this new member to our family.

"Just four more days…let's pray to whatever god there could be that this calm will last longer than that…" I looked back out into the ocean where the sun was still rising. No matter what, I'll always know that even if Xemnas destroyed everything I hold dear, that there will always be a coming sunrise.

"okay…well…" I quickly smiled at Riku. "I'm gonna go check on Kairi." I hung my head low with my eyes halfway lidded, void of any emotion at all as I sunk my feet in the sand, one after another towards kairi's house.

"okay, just be careful. Stay on your guard." heh no need to tell me twice…I turned my head halfway over my shoulder and nodded slightly to acknowledge him.

It had only been two minutes of walking before I heard footsteps behind me approaching fast. I drew my key blades and sliced the air behind me. The figure had jumped so fast before I sliced that he was now above me. I rose both my key blades above my head in reflex as the silhouette came into clear view. He crashed down on me from the air like an eagle falling from the sky. This was becoming too intense for me as I gritted my teeth while he fought with me. But the rage. The hatred was all coming back to me and I began to lose it. I saw red and things became blurry. I screamed at the top of my lungs as tears of anger fought my battle for me while I lost control and started swinging like a madman. Left, right, above, to the side, I swung like there wouldn't be a tomorrow until I had him beckoning on his knees with both of his blades in the sand behind him. I was breathing to hard for my lungs to keep up and my vision was still blurry as angry tears cascaded down my face. I lifted Twilight and pointed it straight at his face. Remember in the beginning of this little story of how terrified I was each morning that I woke up? Well I'm sure this guy must have felt at least ten times worse. He rose his hands pitifully in front of his face for a futile defense.

"S…Sora wait…please…I- it's me…Roxas" right then and there…I could swear I felt a switch go off in my brain. d'oh

"R…Roxas?" my tears vanished and there sitting on his knees was indeed a blonde kid with blue eyes that looked a lot like me. My body went numb and my face struck with horror at what I had just nearly done. I couldn't believe myself at how I nearly killed one of my closest friends. My tears came back and I fell to my knees. Only this time the tears were scared and confused. And it began…I started to sob uncontrollably.

"(hic) what am I turning into to? (hic) (hic)" I sat there with the tears dripping from my eyes. But that's the thing about a key blade master. You never really get the chance to show emotion. So I guess I just had to take the chance while I had it.

"ssshhh…sora…it's okay." Roxas rose to his feet and brought me up with him. I sobbed into his shoulder as he patted my back, cooing into my ear that he was fine and that things were going to be okay. But that rage…that anger…it horrified me. But from the very beginning I knew that the Twilight was evil. But it couldn't have done something like that too me…could it?

I pushed off of him, turned around and wiped my eyes. It had been only a few days since I last cried, and I totally loathed it. I began walking on the cobblestone pathway towards Kairi's house, shoulders hunched with Roxas trailing close behind.

"you okay?" he put a hand on my shoulder as we walked.

"yeah…(sniff) I'm fine…" but truth be told…I wasn't. but there was no way that I was going to let him find that out.

Silently we walked for another two minutes and we got to Kairi's house. But I should say now, she hasn't really been in the best mood lately. Truth be told she has been crying a lot. Perhaps she was just as scared as I was. I stepped to her front door and lightly knocked. There were some footsteps and then the door opened. She stood there in the doorway, but I swear she could have looked more beautiful than I have ever seen her in my life. Her hair was let down as it pooled around her shoulders, her beautiful violet eyes were bloodshot with a tear or two still pooling around the brim of her eyelid, daring itself to fall. she was actually wearing eyeliner. I've never really seen her with make up before but she was breathtaking in it. She was wearing a pair of her skin tight jeans and her white school uniform shirt with the tie and all. Breathtaking… but it almost seemed as if she were in shock when she saw Roxas and I as she grasped a tissue in her right hand and held it midair as if about to dab a tear.

"Kairi…" that was all I really needed to say at that point. Its all I really _**could**_ say to her. But as we all know, actions speak louder than words. I didn't even have a second thought about it. With Roxas standing at my side I quickly glanced and met his eye as I stepped forward to hold kairi in my arms. I held her close to me as she continued to sob, dampening my shirt. And I'll admit… Even at all the danger and horror that was bound to erupt anytime soon, I was on cloud nine right then and there for that moment as if felt like forever. She continued to sob into my shirt for another three minutes. I threw a solemn look to Roxas as he sat on top of the porch railing staring at the sea with the sun now high in the sky. It killed me inside to see Kairi hurt this much. But then she spoke.

"Sora…(hic)… I'm so scared." I buried my head into her dark red locks and closed my eyes as she began sobbing again.

"don't be…" I whispered into her hair and tightened my grip around her not daring to let her go. No matter how brave I might have been…I was scared too.

"Sora I…I just don't want to lose you again. You have no idea what it was like that whole year without you." I opened my eyes as reality hit me. I really had been gone a year. A whole year. I really had left her all alone for the all that time. What I just remembered began to tear me apart inside.

"but while you were gone…(sniff) I thought about you every single day."

Oh kairi…kairi kairi kairi…why couldn't you ever tell me how much you were hurting inside? It was never really that obvious until this point.

"It's okay Kairi…I'm never leaving you again. I Promise. And just like I promised I would come back to you, I'm true to my word." I rubbed her back for her comfort as her sobs slowly died down. At least I was able to comfort her a little bit since she'd been miserable for days now.

"Hey Kairi? Where are you?" I lifted my head off of hers and looked towards the doorway. All this time I had thought she had been here by herself, but standing in the doorway was Namine, same outfit as Kairi.

"(GASP) ROXAS!!" her eyes shone with glee as Roxas nearly fell over the porch railing waiting for Kairi and I's moment to be over with.

"H-Hey Nam…" he said while looking at the ground and rubbing the back of his head. god Roxas and I thought you were at least a little smoother than that…shame shame. And in a flash Namine was hugging roxas around his mid section before he even knew what was going on. Kairi and I were still holding each other but I pretended like I didn't notice, I was comfortable in my current position.

"Roxas…don't go…(sob sob) please…" Roxas lowered his arms to her waist and had the exact moment kairi and I had seconds earlier.

After all was said and done we retreated into Kairi's home. I began feeling bad for all of us really. After that night that Xemnas came back, we each came home to find each of our families missing. Well mine have already been gone…but still, I can see how hard it must have been for the rest of them. Kairi wiped her still soggy eyes.

"would anyone like a drink?" she glanced at each of us. To be truthful. I was dead parched. I raised a hand and sat down on her tan couch in her living room.

"(sniff) I'll be right back." even though Kairi was feeling a little better now, I could still tell that she was dying on the inside. Days earlier when she found her parents missing, I had to stop her from killing herself. Yeah…it was that bad. Luckily enough I was right outside her window strolling by when I saw her writing a letter. It had been addressed to all her loved ones as her final goodbye. She licked the envelope and sealed it with a kiss of her pink lip gloss. She held a gun to her head but I shouted "NO" as I broke through her bedroom window and snatched the gun from her hands. It was the most terrifying thing I had ever lived through in this life. But being a key blade master, my life is full of terror and unwanted things like that. Across the hallway from the living room in the kitchen I heard a clanking of glasses and the opening of a fridge but then.

_**CRASH!**_

"(sigh) oh no…"

My heart nearly pounded out my chest. Yeah key blade masters can get startled to ya know. I hopped off of her tan couch away from Roxas and Namine and sped toward the kitchen. Inside was Kairi with a pitcher of lemonade on the counter and glass shattered across the floor. It was a heartbreaking sight really. Seeing a young women in distress cleaning up such a mess.

"need some help?"

I didn't even wait for a reply before I walked over and began picking up clumps of the broken glass. I accidentally cut myself a couple times, but me being the klutz I am, it was bound to happen. But no matter what cut, bruise, broken bone, or heartache that I could have encountered, I'm sure it was still nothing compared to what kairi felt. So I just continued picking up the broken shards. The broom sitting in the corner seemed like it might help a little bit. I quickly got up and swept the broken glass pieces into a dustpan and once again the floor was sparkling clean, void of any sort of unsightly blemish.

"thank you…" she barely whispered and I wouldn't have been able to hear her had there been any other noises besides Roxas and Namine talking within her living room. But her thank you, it wasn't filled with gratitude. More or less it was soggy and hurt. Yeah I know you're hurt Kairi, but I promise things will be better. My footsteps began to take me out the door one foot in front of another as I walked back to the living room. I stopped at the kitchen doorway and stared back at Kairi who resumed pouring drinks.

"your welcome." I blinked and held my eyes closed for a few seconds before taking a deep breath and walking back towards the living room with Kairi on my heels. I stopped outside the door frame where Roxas and Namine couldn't see me and began to listen in on their conversation. Roxas and Namine both sounded terrible. Each voice filled with sorrow and I could definitely tell one of them was close to crying. Truth be told I wouldn't have been surprised if it happened to be Roxas.

"Roxas…(hic) please don't go…"

"Namine please…this isn't easy for me either. You have no idea how scared I am right now…"

I decided to peak my head slightly into the living room and I saw Roxas hugging his knees up to his chest with Namine leaning her head on his shoulder and sobbing uncontrollably. It was a sad sight really.

"Roxas…(hic) Roxas…(sniff) Roxas Roxas Roxas…" she choked each word out as she kept on sobbing.

"I know Nam…I know…"

It never really occurred to me how much differently women felt about things than guys. I'll admit that I've cried but that was hardly ever. Women on the other hand cry when they're happy, when they're sad. Or whenever they just feel like it. But it was like they had a whole reservoir behind those pretty eyes of theirs. I knew for a fact that Kairi did. After all the crying I saw her do today it was painfully obvious.

Kairi walked out of the kitchen carrying the drinks about to walk into the living room until I stopped her and softly shook my head no.

"they're having a moment, we should just leave them alone for now…" I figured I would whisper since I didn't want to bother them.

I wrapped a hand around her upper arm and led her towards the back door of her house where she and I could also be alone. Outside her house in her backyard was a little picnic table, the kind you see in a park with graffiti all over it. Just beyond that was the beach within twenty feet of her house. It was a really nice house actually. Pretty much more than what most people could ever ask for. But aside from that my eyes lingered at the beauty of the deep blue water and my ears perked at the sound of the waves crashing onto the shore. I relished the fact that all of this was real, but deep deep deep down inside me…I dreaded the fact that this all could be possibly lost. My ocean blue eyes drifted into a pair of bloodshot light violet ones and I became lost as my senses flooded with her beauty. Sometimes words just can't describe things. Even if I tried to I wouldn't come anywhere to close how beautiful she was to me right now. With her hair blowing in the wind, she broke eye contact with me and stared out to the same sea I had relished just moments before. I just had to say it.

"you're so beautiful…"

Her eyes widened and she looked back at me with her mouth agape. It were as if she was astonished. It took a full minute of her staring me down for her to comprehend that it was no false reality and that I really had said that.

"It's true."

Heh it was funny really. All this time I sorta had this huge feeling for her, and I was always afraid to say something. But right here and right now…I dunno why, but it just felt right.

Her eyes began to brim with tears as she closed the distance between me and her letting the cups in her hand crash to the ground and she buried her face into my chest crying with her arms wrapped around my back. I just stared at her with thousands of thoughts running through my mind. Slowly…oh so slowly I brought my arms up and wrapped them around her as if handling a precious and delicate antique. I switched my glances and looked to the sky for one of the last times that I knew I would be able to look at it without worrying about what would be possible in the future, because right now I felt like I didn't have a care in the world.

Chapter 10

Could we turn back time? 3 days left…

I woke up the same way I did yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that. Scared as all bloody hell. It always starts with me squirming in my sleep and then waking up screaming and panting completely out of breath as if I had just ran a marathon. Yeah did I mention that this roller coaster ride of fear and anticipation also came with a nice little package of nightmares? How lovely…so I commenced my usual ritual of things I do after I wake up. I looked out my window at the same blood red sunset. I rested my head on my palm the same way I did yesterday. I sat and thought the same thoughts. I pulled off the same covers. I walked the same steps to my bathroom. I took the same shower. I wiped a hand across the same foggy mirror. Same…same…same. It was like being in some sort of classless society where everything is the same. Well to me, same is boring and I'm getting tired of it. But the few remaining days until school have become quite easier actually. I knew time passed slowly but until the moment where I can finally have a little change in my life, I guess I could just be a little more patient. Fright didn't really seem to take over my thoughts as much either. The nightmares and whatnot still plagued me. But as they had all been the same they began to grow dull. Their sharp knife no longer stabbing at my thoughts. So with my towel still draped around me, I took a little detour instead of just going straight to my room from the bathroom. The pleasantly chill air outside of the bathroom welcomed me with its icy kiss. Quite refreshing actually. I grabbed the pants I took with me into the bathroom and quickly put them on. Yeah no shirt today, just pants and boxers. Outside of my bathroom I drew I deep breath and headed to my left down my stairs. The silence around me was pounding into my ears like a drum. Weird huh? But I couldn't help but feel just a little bit lonely while sitting in my empty house. Sometimes it gets even a little scary. But being who I am, I just brush it off my shoulder, and poof, everything is fine again. I walked in and sat on the couch of my living room and absorbed my surroundings. The picture frames of my family and friends all lined upon the shelf above the fireplace neatly. The entertainment center against the left wall with a big plasma screen T.V. in the middle with a ps3 and xbox 360. Hey key blade masters get bored sometimes too ya know. And that's when it hit me. While scanning over the picture frames of my family and friends, I stopped for an extra few seconds at one picture in particular. It was of just Kairi and me. We were standing against the paopu fruit tree with an arm wrapped around each other with her giving me a playful 'friendly' kiss on the cheek with me giving double thumbs up to the camera. And that's when it felt like I just got hit in the head with a rock. I took a quick glance around my living room and carefully picked up the picture scanning every inch and corner of it.

"I need her…" some might say that I was being ridiculous. But I think otherwise. She was the only solace in this crazy world that was actually able to keep me on the ground. She was the morphine that kept me in my dream of loving her. But…it seems that I'm going to have to wake up sooner than I had hoped.

_**KNOCK KNOCK**_

knocking? At my door? I wonder who it could've been. I set the picture down carefully and walked over and opened my front door only to find it was a whole squad of people I knew. Riku, Kairi, Namine, and that's right you guessed it, Roxas. My eyes drifted over each on of them carefully while I raised one of my eyebrows. What could they want?

"uh…hey guys" but then Riku spoke up.

"sora, we gotta talk." it wasn't the sort of patient 'sora, we gotta talk' that I might have hoped for. He made it sound really urgent actually.

"well, come on in then." I held the door open for them and motioned for them to come inside. They all retreated into my living room and eased into my living room furniture. My plethora of arm chairs and a couch seemed more than enough to keep them content for now. I had to stifle a giggle as Roxas rubbed against his chair like a cat. His moaning was sorta unnecessary though. I guess he just liked it a lot.

"…" I raised on of my eyebrows at Roxas, "ahem…comfy?"

He stopped and looked at me wide-eyed and went back to sitting normally. It was a comfy chair after all.

"Roxas stop screwing around. Okay sora, let's get down to business."

"alright then, I'm listening." with Riku sounding so serious about this I knew I couldn't have been good.

" the heartless are back."

Shit…sometimes I hate when I'm right. My eyes went large and I could feel my heart begin to race.

"There were only a few, but there's gonna be more, and they'll come after all of us. I killed my first one just before we got here." he shot a look at Roxas.

"Roxas ran into some nobodies also…"

"BUT! Since I was in the organization I can still control my nobodies." he smirked

"My ever faithful samurai nobodies."

He rose I hand up and then clenched it tightly to call upon one of his nobodies. And just like that, a blue and white robed samurai nobody was now at Roxas's side on my chair.

"Pretty cool, huh?" I sighed. I was a little intimidated at first but I guess if it hasn't started attacking us yet then I suppose I can rest easy since Roxas has it under control.

"OKAY!! SAMURIA?! Go get me a soda out of sora's fridge" he showed that wide arrogant smile of his and I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. I made a face like this - -- at Roxas as the little critter waddled past me all weird like and into my kitchen to grab Roxas his soda.

"gee thanks little buddy." yeah, I was still astonished.

"ROXAS CUT IT OUT!! THIS IS SERIOUS!" all eyes were on Riku. Never in my whole life had I ever seen or heard him yell…but I'll admit…it frightened me. I looked over at Roxas only to see him with his eyes squinted back at Riku, standing in a rather defensive pose.

"okay pal, I wanna know who you think you are. So just because I ask for a soda you can blow up at me? Sorry pal but I don't think things work out like that. So if I want a soda I can get a goddamn soda. GOT IT?"

"NO I DON'T GOT IT! There are more important things in this fucked up world than you and your stupid little soda's. FREAKIN XEMNAS IS BACK AND ALL YOU SEEM TO CARE ABOUT IS YOU YOU YOU! DID YOU EVER THINK THAT HE COULD COME HERE RIGHT NOW AND KILL US ALL?! This is the reason why we came here in the first place. To talk with Sora and try and make a plan to keep us all alive."

Roxas clenched his fists and scowled at Riku.

"FINE!" and he crossed his arms and fell back into his chair. Riku sighed and looked straight at me dead in the eyes. But no matter how many times I look into the aquamarine eyes of his, I never got used to the feeling as if he's looking straight through me, into my soul.

"okay Sora…" he started but stopped to collect his thoughts.

"the heartless and nobodies have returned. So far I only know two leaders of the nobodies that are here right now. Xemnas and Roxas.

"HEY! I'm not a nobody, it was all a scam from Xemnas, REMEMBER?! None of us are nobodies except for that MANSEX dude."

Everyone in the room began to giggle. I myself couldn't help but suppress a grin. Except Riku that is. He kept his serious face and shot a glare at Roxas who shot one back.

"anyways…" he shot another quick glance at Roxas and turned back to me.

"I have no idea about the rest of the organization, but as for Roxas, I think his power over the nobodies can help us out…" he took a quick look at everyone in the room from Kairi to Namine to Roxas and then back to me. Still standing in the doorway I decided to go and sit on the couch in between Kairi and Riku.

"alright…so what sort of plan did you have in mind?"

"well that's the thing…I don't really have a plan. I figured I would just inform you and once we find out more we could just make a plan then. But something tells me that nothing too major will happen until after school starts. I mean even Xemnas with how powerful he is couldn't make an army and send them after us in just three more days."

True…very true, I don't think Xemnas COULD do something on that large of a scale. But I guess for now I would just take Riku's word. Which means that we all have another three days of preparing for whatever evil may come our way. I gotta admit, I was relieved. But just how fast or slow would three days pass? But when I look at all of this and what's happening right here at my feet…sometimes I think to myself…could we turn back time…?

Chapter 11

I think I saw you cry…2 days left

KAIRIS POV!!OMG

It was hard for me to wake up this morning. Yeah its been like that for the past week or so and I've had a lot of things on my mind lately. But I don't mind…But there's just one certain thing…one certain person who won't stay off my mind. Care to take a guess who it is? (sigh) that's right…Sora. So you might ask me why I think of him all the time. You might ask me why I'm so scared for him. Hey you might even go as far as asking me if I love the guy. And well…answering first question to last, it's because I love him, I love him, and yes, I love him.

So this morning I woke with a stir with the sun shining in my eyes through the window. I gave a shy smile and spoke to myself.

"(sigh) good morning sun…" was all I could muster to say before tears were in my eyes again. Yeah I'm a lot smarter than most people think I am though. Because I saw what was in the future. I looked ahead of us and all I saw was pain and hurt for Sora and me. But think…how would you feel if the boy you loved was being thrown into some kind of war that he might never come back from? Yeah, so I cherished every moment I spent with him, but at least when school comes around, things will change. I know they will.

I shook the sleep from my eyes and blinked a few times before I pulled the covers off of myself and walked over to my bedroom mirror. It was getting easier to handle…being alone that is. Yeah my parents mysteriously disappeared. Now I know what Sora felt like…and it hurt. But something crazy happened. I took a hard look at my reflection, and I felt something in my mind click. And I don't know how it happened but I felt like something was coming…and it didn't feel like a good something. I turned back to my reflection and began to brush the knots out of my dark red locks.

"(sigh) another day…" and yes, it was another day. Another day that Sora would be with me. Another day where I wouldn't have to worry about Sora being gone. Put simply, another day I would survive. I walked over to the glass doors that led to the balcony outside of my room. I loved waking up in the mornings though, because it meant I could cherish the beautiful sunrises and just get lost in my thoughts. I opened up one of the doors and took a few steps to the railing and leaned on it. My thoughts began to race and I got caught up in the hodgepodge of jumbled up images until my brain picked a memory in particular.

_FLASH BACK_

_I don't know how I got here, but everywhere around me was darkness. No light at all, and I was terrified. But then…_

"_KAIRI!" I couldn't believe my eyes, it was him._

"_SORA!" he ran up to me and shone that grin of his, but a moment later the ground began to break apart._

"_(GASP)" I began to stumble but HE caught me by the hand and looked me straight in the eyes, and that's when it started, I fell in love._

"_kairi! Remember what you said before? I'm always with you too, I'll come back to you, I PROMISE!!" the ground between us was quickly separating and I was losing my grasp on his hand._

"_I know you will!" and our grasp broke apart. I kept reaching for him but he was now too far away. Before I knew it I ended up back on our island and all the stars began to spark back into the sky one by one._

_END FLASHBACK_

I felt the tears falling down my face as I remembered just how much Sora risked for me. But I just couldn't help but smile at it all. I lost my heart, and he gave me his. He saved our world from darkness…he was a hero. I knew I should be happy that we were all together again, but I couldn't help but let the tears go. Drip, after drip, after drip.

"pretty isn't it?" I jumped a little bit and quickly wiped my eyes.

"(GASP) whose there!?" I looked around frantically until I looked up and saw Riku sitting in a tree, leaning back and watching the sunrise as well.

"don't have a heart attack, it's just me."

Sometimes it was weird how Riku could just show up sometimes when you least expect it.

"oh okay…but uh…why are you up there?" yeah why _was_ he up there?

"keeping a lookout while you slept."

"a lookout?"

"yup."

"for what?"

"eh…you can never be too careful."

I looked down at my feet. He was right. Then he continued.

"but hey…"

"yeah?"

"I think I saw you cry. You alright?"

I kept looking down at me feet. Surely I couldn't tell him how much I was really hurting inside. He just wouldn't understand.

"if its about sora…then I'll understand."

Maybe I was wrong. But how well could I trust him?

"…" I couldn't say a word at all. Maybe I should have a little more faith in Riku. Sure he was sorta big headed but well…maybe I should give him more credit than I did. But before I knew it, the tears leaked out of my eyes once again.

"it's just so hard Riku…(hic) I…I love him" I tried wiping my tears but more just kept pouring out.

"it was so hard when you two were gone…(hic) my two best friends in the whole world not here by my side…and my feelings for Sora."

I looked back from my feet up to his face.

"DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT WAS?!" I screamed at the top of my lungs at him but he didn't flinch at all. He kept that same blank stare.

"(sob sob) do you know how hard it was?" I said to him again and collapsed into him pounding on his chest. With my face streaked in tears, I looked back up into Riku's…beautiful…aquamarine eyes.

"(hic) why did you leave me behind?" the tears kept falling but they began to slow down. But he never said a word. All he did was just stand there looking into my eyes.

"…I'm sorry Kairi…" his eyes pounded into mine as his face drew closer. He was so close that I could notice the tears on the brim of his eyes.

"I'm so…so sorry Kairi." he cupped my face in his hands and brought his soft lips onto mine. After a few moments he broke it and looked into my eyes. It was short but so many things were said just then and there.

"Riku…" why…why did he have to do this? Why did he have to love me? Why why why…

"ssshhh…" and he brought his lips to mine once again.

_**Chapter 12**_

_**It Felt Like A Great Day…2 days left**_

_**SORA'S POV same time when Kairi woke up(a good song to listen to while reading this would be "untitled by Simple Plan, or 9 crimes by Damien Rice. just do it trust me)**_

There were only two days left until school started. Whoop dee doo…ugh…school. But for once this morning I didn't wake up covered in sweat or out of breath as if I'd run a marathon in my sleep. I didn't even have a nightmare. Heck, I didn't even wake up with a startle or a scream. It was just…normal. The sun shining through my window danced on my face as I slowly opened my eyes and I sat up in my bed and looked out at the sunrise again. Each day that I woke up alive made it more beautiful every time. And every time I watch it, I always think of Kairi. every time. So with a grunt I rose from my bed and went into my bathroom, and turned on the water in my shower. It was actually getting a lot easier, like today seemed to have been the best day I've had so far. I dunno, it just felt like a great day. I stripped and stepped into the warm water. While being pounded on by the warm water my thoughts began to stray as usual, but then a thought occurred to me.

"(sigh) just two more days…" yeah only two more days left to go until hell rains on us like water from the sky…in other words, school. okay maybe it wasn't _that _bad, but still I didn't want to go. And aside from that, there's still Xemnas plotting against me out there. I just know he is. But I quickly shook that thought from my mind. And I had nothing to really worry about. I knew that when the time came, I would be ready.

My shower ended when I turned off the water and I stepped out of the shower and took a step towards my foggy mirror and wiped a hand across it, and there was my face. No longer with the eyes filled with fear but with the eyes filled with bravery and courage. But then again I DID feel brave, and I DID feel courageous. Heh I felt as if nothing in this world could bring me down. So guess what? I decided I would go and see Kairi. (sigh) yup, nothing could go wrong today.

I put on a pair of jeans with my white belt with black studs. It was fairly warm outside. wouldn't ya know? Perfect temperature. Along with my pants I slid on my slim fit black My Chemical Romance shirt with my black and white checkered wrist bands.(the outfit I wear nearly everyday with a change of T-shirt) Everything was good to go, so I grabbed my ipod, put on a black beanie, checked my key blades, walked down the stairs and hopped out my door.

Yeah it was a gorgeous day. All the better for me to think of Kairi on my way over to her house. Yeah the day may have been gorgeous, but Kairi would always be more than twice as gorgeous to me no matter what. And with that my mind began to stray as I began walking with the sun peeking from behind a few clouds while examining my surroundings in a daze. It was actually quite peaceful living on an island lush with wildlife. But no matter what, whenever I would find solace within the serenity of my surroundings, the burdening thought of all of this being lost starts to haunt me. every time…and believe it or not, it gets maddening. But just then something caught my eye. A flower…a blue rose…no it was more than just any old flower, it was beauty itself in its very essence. As if it were a bird singing its song to the sunset. It took me a few seconds before I snapped back to reality and went over to it. I broke into a smile.

"maybe I'll give it to Kairi" yeah…I'll give it to kairi. Maybe with this we can stop playing these cat and mouse games and I can actually show her how I feel. Okay, plan Fall In Love With Kairi is set and ready to go. I picked it from the ground with the utmost care and proceeded on towards Kairi's house.

Within the next few minutes I reached Kairi's house. Heh I figured she would still be asleep, it was actually still pretty early morning. Give or take eight o'clock A.M. So quietly I opened the front door and walked up her stairs. I could hardly contain myself. It really showed since I was smiling so much. So with my hand over my mouth to prevent any sort of giggle I softly tip-toed to her door and slowly began to open it. I stopped it with a few inches between the door and the frame, just enough for me to peek an eye through and look in. But something was odd, Kairi wasn't in her bed. I opened the door a little more and peeked my whole head through and looked left and right. I guess Kairi was already up, since she obviously wasn't here. So I walked in and stood in the middle of her room with her balcony to my left. I stretched quickly and walked over to her door that led to the balcony and reached for the knob. I could swear I heard voices on the other side though. I took a glance at the flower still in my hand but what I saw stopped my heart dead in its tracks when I opened the door.

"I'm so…so sorry Kairi" Riku said as he brought his lips onto hers. I couldn't believe my eyes…Riku…why? Why do this to me Kairi? How could you…

"I love you Kairi…" his words broke my heart into a thousand pieces and I couldn't take this anymore. It felt like my heart was being stabbed by the sharpest knife over and over again. It hurt so bad that my vision became blurred and the tears started pouring out as I clenched my fist around the rose. My hand began to bleed from the thorns but my whole body was numb from disbelief. But by accident I sobbed a little louder than I meant to and both Kairi and Riku turned to me surprised and I locked eyes with her. And with the tears flowing down my face I threw the rose down, turned around in the door way and ran. I ran with my eyes still blurry with no idea of where I might have been going. I just kept running and running and running, but then I heard Kairi's voice yell after me. But I didn't dare look back. There was no way I was going back. I'm not going back. I ran all the way out to the paopu tree on the little island and fell to my knees crying in agony. Why…why did it hurt so badly? Why couldn't I breathe? Why won't these tears stop falling? Why why why? The tears began falling faster as I began punching the ground in frustration. Once. And then again. And then again… But before I knew it I had punched the ground so many times that there was a small crater forming from where my fists hit over and over again into the soft soil. I glanced down at my blood covered and bruised hand and stared in disbelief. I couldn't even feel it…And then I began to cry again with my tears crashing onto my hand washing some of the blood and dirt away. I looked back up to the sky and I screamed my heart out at the top of my lungs. I screamed out of hatred. I screamed out of pain. I screamed out of heartbreak. But mainly I screamed…out of love. Yeah, so much for the best day ever…

_**Chapter 13**_

_**There's Nothing Left For Me Here…1 day left**_

It was the last day of my freedom, but even though I was still free…I felt like a caged bird longing to get out. I felt like a prisoner in my own mind. I felt like I died inside and then…I felt nothing. I thought over and over to myself…how could this happen to me? And every conclusion that I came to was my key blades. This…cursed blade…this…THING!! I couldn't believe that the source of all my problems had revolved around these monstrosities. And just like that…I hated them. But more than them, I hated myself. I hated myself for not killing Xemnas when I had the chance. I hated myself for letting Kairi slip out of my grasp. And I hated myself for being me. More than lately I felt like my world was crashing down on me and I just didn't know what to do. All the pain I felt was worse than I could have ever imagined. And that pain was a little thing called loneliness…usually I always had someone there beside me but now there was no one. And the darkness began to steep itself within me. There was no longer a light to protect me…and I knew that I was changing for the worst. But what I want to know is how did it all happen so fast?…I don't know…but what I do know is that there is nothing left for me here.

With my eyes still halfway opened from the night before I took a deep breath as the sun shone through my bedroom window. I hadn't been able to sleep this night so I slowly turned over in my bed so that I was on my back. But no matter what I did I still felt dead inside. I had hoped that it was all just a bad dream and that I would wake up any moment…but that moment never came. I flicked my eyes in each direction before I dragged myself out of my bed and slowly stepped into my bathroom. Everything in the world seemed to have stopped. As if nothing moved and all there had been was deafening silence. And then I remembered yesterday. I pictured Riku's lips on Kairi's. I heard the words "I love you kairi" echo around in my brain. Please…please whatever god there might be up there, please end this nightmare and wake me up. But I guess the words finally stuck to me…this was no dream.

"(hic) why Riku?" I started to cry again. "why?" I spoke barely above a whisper to myself as the tears flew down my face and down to the ground. I quickly wiped them and stepped into my shower. With the warm water pounding against my back I felt like I could relax. For once I was serene within my shower place. It almost even felt right to cry in my shower because as soon as they appeared they were washed away, just like a seashell on the tide.

"(sigh)…why…" I couldn't cry this time. As for now I suppose that my eyes were done, since I hadn't slept at all. But then I clenched my fist and began to hammer it into the wall.

"WHY?!" I screamed at the hold in the wall. It was beginning to be to much for me but I was just so confused. I knew Kairi loved me, I knew Riku was my best friend…so then…why? But before I knew it, I felt a bubbling rage begin to grow inside me. And it was then and there that I knew I new emotion. Hatred.

I stepped out of my shower with my head tilted down with my eyes glued to the floor. The spikes in my hair pooled downward covering my face as I wrapped a towel around my waist. My mind began to stray as I narrowed my eyes and gritted my teeth at the thought of _his_ lips on _hers_. With that thought in mind I threw my head back to get my damp hair out of my eyes. With all of my attention still on the ceiling and my head inclined, I took a glance out of the bottom of my eye into my mirror and slowly tilted my head back down to normal. Hah just look at the faggot in the mirror. He's such a weak pile of shit. He let himself lose the girl he loved. He let his best friend betray him. Oh wait…that's me isn't it? HAHA…(sigh) how funny. I didn't even recognize myself for a moment. (sigh) what's this world coming to?

I took my towel from my waist and began to dry my hair. Once dry it spiked back to its normal fashion. The mist inside this bathroom began to bother me, so I walked over to the bathroom window.

_**CRASH!!**_

Before I even realized what I was doing, I threw a fist straight through the window and broke the entire thing. I was completely shocked at what I had just done as the glass shards flew in every direction, but miraculously none shattered into my eye sockets. I stayed that way with my arm outstretched through the broken window for a moment or two before I pulled it back and examined it. I looked it up and down with a glare in my eyes and noticed it was bleeding worse than a stuck pig with all these glass shards in it. An odd thing really, but I couldn't feel any of it at all. I smirked, and then began to laugh at the sight of how much blood was dripping from my arm. I lifted my gaze and looked around the now mist free bathroom and grabbed a pair of tweezers and began plucking out the pieces one by one.

"heh…haha…hahahah…ahahahah…HAHAHA!!HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!" am I losing my mind? I just kept laughing as I switched glances between my bloody, glass free arm to all the blood soaked glass pieces. But I could help but wonder…why was it so funny?

With my arm still blooded, I called for my beautiful white goddess who I like to call my 'Twilight'.

"oh…you're so…beautiful." I barely whispered but I swear I felt a tear fall down my face as I looked her up and down. She really was beautiful. I took a glance at the handle and released my hand from it. As I expected it was covered in blood. But something odd began to happen. A red aura began to circle around her and then it took on a coat of blood red from its blinding white finish.

"hmm…" I raised an eyebrow and stroked my chin as I looked this new, RED oblivion up and down. And then I smiled to myself.

"pretty spiffy…" I looked it up and down one last time before I made it vanish into a flash of little sparkles. I just love that feeling of when you make the key blade vanish, it's like having the sunlight's heat sail through your body and then back out. Still in my towel, I walked over and sat on the toilet where my other clothes were and looked at the sunrise through the broken window. And then I began to think. I pictures Riku's lips on Kairi's and tears began to appear in my ocean blue eyes. They were on the verge of falling until I thought about the song called "she will be loved" by a band called Maroon 5. This is when the tears began streaking down my face. Drip after drip. I leaned forward and pressed my palms to my eyes with my elbows on me knees. Why did it have to be so hard? And why did it have to hurt so bad? I don't know…and maybe I'll never know. But maybe it would be easier since tomorrow is the day…yes…tomorrow is the day.


	3. And So It Begins

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OOOkaaay so here's my update since like a long time ago, sorry for taking so long. CURSE MY LACK OF INSPIRATION! so yeah, schools in and things happen...O-o (makes ghosty noises) ahem so anyways on with the story

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_I Thought Things Were Normal Again Part 3: The Star Of My Night Sky._

_The remaining days I lived after the mall incident were by far my worst. Restless nights…a new key blade that gave me indescribable rage. A heartbreak that drove me to the brink of insanity….yeah isn't life just peachy? Of course it is…and the best part of it is that my bullshit life just started getting better too. I thought it was over. No more heartless. No more nobodies. No more organization XIII. No more traveling to other worlds. And last of all, not having to daydream and wish for a normal life, because now it was just within my grasp…But I was an idiot to think things could ever stay like that now wasn't I? It's a shame though…it was all happening as I Thought Things Were Normal Again…_

_**Chapter 14**_

_**I held it in my hand for you…day 1**_

_**in the morning…**_

I ran it through my mind over and over again. Was it really possible? Did it really happen? It seems as if it happened so long ago. But then again these past two days felt like two years in my eyes. And just like that time began to pass like a snail for me again. But gosh did I really miss this feeling? No…not really…not at all.

I woke up this morning stiff as a board. I had a nightmare but I didn't sweat. I didn't scream. And I wasn't panting like a tired dog like I usually would. Plain and simple…I just couldn't feel anymore. It was as if I didn't have a heart…maybe I didn't. I mean there's only so much a guy can handle right? Heh especially if it involves your best friend and the love of your life kissing right in front of you. But no way that would ever happen to me. Oh wait…it did…

I was hurt…I was betrayed…I was defiled…I was destroyed. I was many things but one of those things definitely was not _happy._ I sat up from the comfort of my bed and scanned the dark grey rain clouds outside of my bedroom window. If I hadn't known better, I would have thought the heavens were shedding their tears for me. But no one in the world is _that_ special…not even a keybearer…not even me, however badly I may have wished it were so.

So today marked the beginning of my infinite misery. Today being the day I start school. Today being the day that I get burned at the sight of Riku and Kairi being together. Today being the day I cry my eyes out…Today being the day I may lose my heart. Today…maybe today being the day I can end everything…for the only comfort I had been able to encompass came from the dim, cold, and quiet darkness that I was sheltered within. The pounding darkness that gloomed from my misery. The sacred darkness that wept for my woes. The understanding…beautiful darkness.

I turned away from my window and glanced around my dark room. No sun today. No light…no nothing. Kinda ironic huh? Just a gloomy, dim room with the slight rain drop pecking at my window. It was beautiful to me…beautiful like a certain person…a certain person with the most breath taking violet eyes…but her name…her voice…it's left me.

With my lungs hardly taking in any air, I began breathing less and less into my empty shell of a body. I rose from my bed only halfway alive as I made my way to the bathroom, slowly stripping to my bare flesh while I stepped into the lukewarm water of my shower place. But then a voice started pounding into my head.

_The silence keeps it easy…keeps you safe for the moment._

"whose there?" I kept my voice calm, void of any sort of emotion. But then again I couldn't stress emotion at all…since I felt nothing.

_Let me take this time to…ask you…_

"ask me what?"

_inform you…of all the things you did not know._

"what? What is it that I don't know?"

_I was always by your side…_

"what? What are you talking about?"

_you will find out soon enough…_

Was I losing my mind? I could swear…the darkness was talking to me. But days earlier the darkness had tried to take me…I stopped a moment entirely and shut my eyes straining my ears to hear the voice again. But it didn't come back. They never come back…

"wait…come back! What did you want to ask me? What didn't I know?" there was no answer. "WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!"

Still no answer…but what was that voice? It sounded so cold…so hurt…so broken. As if my own but not coming from me. I shook my head and voided my head of the thought and turned off the water.

I stood still for a moment hoping for the voice to come back…but to no surprise it didn't. I ripped back the door and stepped out of my shower into the misty bathroom and glanced to my left at the dark sky outside of the still broken window.

I softly shook my head, it's just not worth it…" I told myself quietly and it really probably wasn't worth it…all the pain and hurt I've been through…but that still doesn't mean you can go on as if nothing happened. But when you feel such pain and heartbreak like this it's nearly impossible to get over(I've really been through this kind of thing. My best friend kissed a girl that I really really liked behind my back.)

I wrapped a towel around my waist and walked out into the dark hallway to my room. As usual I was greeted with an icy rush of air, except this time I more than welcomed it. I embraced it, letting it kiss the water droplets off my soft skin. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes and then stepped into my room. Still as gloomy as ever I threw my towel to the ground and put on my clothes. Ripped jeans with a slim-fit black AFI shirt with my black and white checkered wrist bands and my black December Underground beanie.(kind of outfit I wear everyday with a different shirt each day) I stood in my mirror and looked myself up and down. I noticed how my spiky hair pooled around my shoulders because of the beanie, but I actually found it quite interesting. With a final glance at the mirror, I picked up my book bag and walked down my stairs and out of my house and locked the door. It was still raining outside…damn it…I forgot my hoody…oh well. And off I walked towards Kingdom High School.

When I walked onto the school grounds I couldn't help but stare in amazement at my old school…yeah it was HUGE. There was a gate in the front of it cutting into a walkway that led to the large glass doors. On the very tip of the school was a clock that read seven o'clock. I looked up to acknowledge the time not caring for the raindrop pelting themselves onto my face and soggening my clothes. I brought my head back down to stare at the ground hoping to avoid any sort of attention and proceeded to walk through the glass doors into my school. I stood still in the main entrance in front of the office and looked around. Memories plagued my mind while I looked left, right, and then forward into each branching off hallway. Every here and there was a student walking into a classroom or a couple making out before the bell rung. Hah I remembered walking down the hallway in between Riku and Kairi laughing about some stupid joke I told about orange juice…yeah life back then was so simple and we didn't have a care in the world…but a whole year away can change all of that. I shook it out of my head and suddenly I heard a gasp behind me. I turned my head over my shoulder and I caught a pair of the most…breathtaking light violet eyes. I stood there pounding my eyes into hers with my head still turned over my shoulder for another minute while she put both of her hands up to her mouth as if she were in shock.

"S…So…Sora…"

"…" I could only narrow my eyes at her since I really had nothing to say to her.

"I…sorry i wasn't…I didn't…please believe me…" her eyes began filling with tears. But this time, I couldn't have cared less. I broke my eye contact with her, readjusted my back pack on my shoulder, and walked away while shaking my head, looking down to the floor straight into the main office in front of me. I heard her footsteps behind me until I could feel her breath on the back of my neck and her arms circle my waist.

"get away from me…" I mumbled just barely over a whisper. She just loved to push buttons didn't she…

"but…but sora…" her voice began to tremble.

"I SAID STAY AWAY FROM ME YOU FILTHY WHORE!!" I turned around and stood full height with my face red from anger.

"WHY DON'T YOU JUST GO AND MAKE OUT SOME MORE WITH THAT SILVER HAIRED FREAK?!"

"but sora no…wait…I…I didn't…" I could tell she was trying so hard to make me understand…but what was there to understand? How she and Riku kissed right in front of me…no…there was nothing for me to understand, because I understood entirely.

"you didn't…you didn't? BULL FUCKIN SHIT!! I SAW YOU! HOW _DARE_ YOU TRY AND LIE TO ME?!"

"sora no, please im sorry, I wasn't…he…I…" the tears were streaming down her face like a rainstorm. Usually when she cried I would have been there to comfort her…but now…I couldn't care less.

"no kairi…just get out of my face…I have nothing left to say to you…" thank god the place was nearly empty still. After this scene there would have been a hell load of unwanted attention. I narrowed my eyes and turned back around to reached for the door until I felt Kairi spin me around to face her again. Before I knew it her lips were locked with mine in an only halfway passionate kiss. My half of passion was nowhere to be found. She begged for entry into my mouth but I refused. My face stood emotionless as her lips parted from mine with tears in her eyes still. She looked into my eyes not daring to let me go as she wrapped her arms around my back and laid her head onto my chest. After a moment she looked back up into my eyes with shock. She put her head to my left chest once more and closed her eyes hard as if listening for something and then looked into my eyes once more.

"Sora…where's…where's your heart beat?"

I narrowed my eyes at her.

"well you should know…you're the one that ripped it out of me and stepped on it…"

I pushed her away from me and walked into the main office. It was a pity though…I almost felt sorry for her…almost. Through the glass I heard her crying out loud while running down the opposite hallway…oh well.

I walked up to the front desk with my eyes glued to the floor as my bangs pooled around them.

"hi…"

"oh hello there, what can I do for you?"

Great…just what I needed, some peppy bitch as the office worker.

"um…yeah can I have my schedule please?"

"why of course hun, can I have your name please?"

My eye twitched in irritation as she kept on smiling that same plastic annoying smile. Did she just call me hun? don't push it lady…

"uh…yeah umm…Sora…Sora Kurshek…"

She looked up from her computer and attempted to look into my eyes. I turned my head to the side in a vain attempt to avoid eye contact.

"S…Sora? The same Sora that disappeared for a year? Oh…my…Goodness…"

"yeah we can skip the formalities, just give me my schedule…"

Before I knew it the lady ran around the desk and gripped me in a bone crushing hug.

"ooohhh sora sora sora. I've missed you so much. Don't you remember me? Aerith? It's me, Aerith."

"yeah Aerith I know its you…now can you let go of me please? Your crushing me…"

"oh of course hun, of course, now let me just print out your schedule for you."

I rolled my eyes and blew one of my tufts of hair. After a few moments she returned with a blue piece of paper in her hand.

"here you go, have a nice day" she shone that smile of hers and I swear I could have jumped over the desk and strangled her…but I decided to get out of there before I let anything bad happen.

I walked out and looked to my left and to my right at the branching off hallways and then back down to my schedule. I narrowed my eyes at the tiny words and read each class off one by one, but…the teachers.

"first period…honors musical guitar with Mr…_Myde_?"

Wait a minute…why does that sound so familiar? Mr…Mr…_Myde…_ no I have no idea who this person is…I must be losing it…yeah…that's it.

"second period, Algebra 2 with professor…Ienzo?"

What?! Why do these names keep sounding so oddly familiar? I swear I've never even heard these names before. I pulled the paper closer to my face and read the rest of them off.

"third period chemistry with Mr. Even"

"fourth period P.E. with Mr. Aeleus"

"fifth period Social interaction/chance with Professor Drulo"

"then sixth period English with Mr. Dalin"

"lunch"

"then seventh period Sexual Education with Professor Amarlia"

"eighth period rhetoric irony and sarcasm with Mr. Ale"

"ninth period weather conditions with Mrs. Arlene"

"tenth period astronomy with Professor Sai"

"eleventh period Weapons Education with Professor Braig"

"and finally twelfth period Art with Mr…" oh…my…god…I looked up from the paper mouthing the name of the last teacher on my list…_ansem._

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Well this chapter has been alot shorter than the other ones but i decided i would cut it into chapters instead of parts. idea was courtesy of eCZi aka miss butaneng so please review, if you do i'll give you a cookie:D

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	4. Voices In The Hallways

oooookay so its been a REALLY long time since i last updated i know i know, and im soooo sorry, hah its not like anyone reads this story anyways...okay bad joke but still, this one took me some time to write, 7086 words actually,alot longer than the last chapter, i just felt like i had to make it up to you guys. so as an added bonus...FREE STEAMY HOT FRESH BAKED COOKIES FOR EVERYONE! everyone who reviews by the way sorry but with so little reviews...i lacked motivation, okay okay enough meaningless rambling, ONTO THE STORY

and i do not own kingdom hearts or any song i used in this yada yada yada.

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I Thought Things Were Normal Again

Chapter 15

_The Voices In The Hallways_

_Holy shit…holy fucking shit. How in the hell is this happening? I mean…_Aerith?! _I was more than surprised at first when I saw her even though I didn't show it but dear lord…this only makes me wonder who else could be here…Leon? Yuffie maybe? What about the rest of the organization XIII cronies? What if they never really faded? What if Xemnas unleashes some sort of army on the school? I mean…I just cant believe this crap is happening all over again. All the nobodies' some bodies are my teachers. And the most evil bastard of all just _happens _to be leading them…don't worry Sora…just play it cool. I'm sure if Aerith is here then Leon and Yuffie should be here too…and if you're lucky then no one will notice you…just keep it frosty…heh it IS kinda funny though…This all started happening when _I Thought Things Were Normal Again.

I looked one more time back down at my schedule at the black fine print that read 'twelfth period art with Mr. Ansem'. oh no…oh dear god no. wasn't it enough that I even had to come back to this hellhole? wasn't it enough that I had to have _her _and _him _rip what little of a heart I had left? And _WASN'T IT ENOUGH _that I had already been through this once before? Heh I wish it was but…I guess not. And then I remembered… I'm back. After a year of being gone…I'm finally back. I looked at the clock on the far wall that read 7:05 and blew out a sigh while shaking my head.

"fuck…" it's all I really could say right now but it's all I really needed to. Fuck for the familiar faces I'll be running into all day. Fuck for the future…fuck for the past…fuck fuckity fuck fuck fuck.

Class wouldn't start for another half an hour so I decided to do some exploring to refresh myself. So with a shift of my beanie on my hair to shade my eyes, and a readjustment of my backpack I continued onward with my head down as to avoid any sort of attention.

While I scaled the stairs to the second floor I began to feel uneasy from the barrage of glances from the passing students, piercing through my skin to my very core as if prying deep into my soul, seeing through every aspect of my being. The dagger sharp glances thrown at me with every passing person -be it a teacher or a fellow student- were more than enough to cause a bead of sweat to cascade down the side of my face, tracing along my anatomy only for it to drip down to the floor in an ever ending suicide. And to make even it better, they just _kept on_ staring with the occasional-

"hey was that…?"

Or

"was that…Sora?"

Or even the, "oh my gosh its him!" from the off chance group of girls passing by in hordes like an army of bumble bees.

My lips tensed together harder and harder as I walked down the hallway with my eyes still glued to the floor, trying my hardest to keep silent in order to give them no further initiative to run up to me and scream a hello in my face, or bum rush me with hugs and high fives. I _knew_ that this was going to happen…but I guess it was inevitable for the fact that I was so popular back before the storm, however badly I may detest the fact. I _may_ have been happy and glad that I had so many friends back then, but as of right now this very moment…I wish nobody even knew I existed…

The awkward glances kept coming and coming until I rounded a corner and-

_OOMPH!_

"_ow"_

"oh…sorry" I said not _daring _to lift my eyes off the ground. While not daring to peel my eyes from the floor, I noticed it was now littered with books, binders, and loose papers.

"oh, no, it's okay, I wasn't watching where I was going."

hmm…a feminine voice…full of pep and cheer. With slight hesitation I lifted my head up only to see…

"(GASP) oh my gosh! Sora!" and just then my eyes locked with a pair of rather pretty emerald green ones. I tried walking the other direction but she caught me by the arm and turned me around. I painfully tried to put on a smile and slowly brought my eyes back to hers.

"(sigh) hey selphie…"

And before I knew it she had caught me up in a bone crushing hug. The second one today.

"oh my gosh I can't believe you're really here! Where have you been the whole last year? I mean gosh we've all missed you _soooo_ much." she said with extra emphasis, " Especially Wakka and Tidus, but wouldn't you know? They've been driving me up the freakin wall with their _constant _competition and whatnot. (sigh) I guess they needed something to get their minds off how great of a competitor you and Riku were and…" she cut off and pulled away looking me up and down with her hands on her hips.

"hmm…Gosh you got tall." She lowered her arms and a small smile spread on her delicate features. Her emerald eyes were up to the brim with happiness. But then I took a quick glance at myself. wouldn't you know? I _did _get pretty tall.

"yeah…I guess" I said while rubbing the back of my neck and then she perked up again.

"OH! and Kairi, oh my freakin gosh Kairi" she started again shortly bouncing on her toes.

"Wait until you see her." she stopped and winked, " she's gotten pretty _hot_ ifI do say so myself" she stopped again and softly elbowed me in the ribs.

"uh…yeah." heh yeah…the bad things is…I already knew that, but I just kept quiet to humor her.

"yeah and since I'm with her all the gosh darn time all I ever hear is _'I wonder what he's doing'_ or even _'do you think he remembers me?' _And then the guys. Oh my gosh all the boys have been trying to get to her _nonstop_, but she's just so stuck on you ya know? I mean every day I would just sit on the side lines with my arms crossed watching guy after guy come up trying to ask 'miss princess' on a date." she stopped and made air quotes with her fingers.

"But all I could really do was just smirk while she turned them all down one by one. She almost caved in a couple times though…" she ended in a thoughtful manner while stroking her chin for added affect.

This was getting painfully unbearable. It was a wonder to me how Kairi could even stand being around this girl. I'm seeing her mouth move but all I'm hearing is just _blah blah freakin blah._

"hmm…gosh Sora you're being awfully quiet"

_Oh so you finally noticed huh_? I thought to myself quietly.

"oh um…yeah I was just thinking…"

"oh I see…watcha thinking about?"

I turned my head away from her nosiness, but what did I really try and get out of that? She would only walk in front of my field of vision and place herself in the middle of everything. I had to lie, sorry Selph but today is _not _the day.

"oh umm…you know…stuff…"

"oh really? What kinda stuff?" she said with a tilt of her head.

"uh…you know…guitar…blitz ball…heh."

I wasn't really thinking about either of those things, on the contrary I was thinking of taking a nice large roll of tape and using the whole thing on her mouth. It may sound mean but you don't even know…

"OOOHHH! I never knew you played guitar" she lit up with a smile and clapped her hands together.

"will you play for me sometime? Please sora? Pleeeeeeeeeease?" she begged while pulling on my shirt and giving me the sad puppy eyes.

"(sigh) fi-"

"I'll even bring Kairi so you guys could hook up" she cut me off and winked. This girl is an enigma…so I sighed, rolled my eyes and shook a small nod yes. Her eyes grew big and she gave me another bone crushing, yet affectionate, hug. _third _one today.

"ooooooh thank you thank you thank you! Okay swing by my house this weekend, I'll throw a little party for you coming back" she stepped back and giggled a little bit.

"well okay sora, I gotta go, I have s'more stuff to do, so I'll see you around kay? Bye bye." she walked off with a small wave and I thanked every possible entity out there that that was _finally _over.

(sigh) finally…I don't know if I could take a full day of this. I thought to myself and began exploring the hallways once again.

--

Only five minutes into walking and the piercing stares started coming again by the boatload. I mean really, what was _with _these people? don't they have anything better to do than stare at me as if I were on fire? Apparently not…and then a memory occurred to me.

_Flashback_

I remembered Riku, Kairi, and I sitting at the paopu tree one day.

_We all looked out towards the horizon that was painted with splotches of orange, blue, yellow, red, and gold. It was our tradition to end each day like that. But then Riku broke the silence of our thoughts and sighed while leaning against the tree with his arms crossed._

"_it's always the same old thing…day after day…nothing ever changes around here…" he paused for a moment._

"_it's as if we're just caged animals… Set to a routine each day, not able to see what's on the outside world." he stood away from the tree and stepped to the edge of the smaller island while facing the sunset, becoming brilliantly lighted in the oranges and yellows._

"_but I know…someday…someday soon" he paused and looked back at Kairi and me._

"_we'll leave…" he turned back towards the horizon and continued._

"_I want nothing more than to leave this cage…to be free…with us three, there's nothing we cant do." within that sentence he rose one of his hands and clenched it to a fist._

_I lifted my head slightly and looked at kairi. The look on her face was full of concern. But I'll admit, she looked amazing in the sunset, even back then. And then she spoke._

"_you've been thinking a lot about this haven't you?" he turned around and smiled a soft smile towards her. I noticed a gleam in his eyes._

"_yes…no…maybe. Ever since you came along I've just been thinking why we're here…on this island. And if so, then our's is only a piece of something much greater…right?" he looked at me. I shrugged._

"_I dunno" he looked back out at the sunset._

"_exactly"_

_I sat up from my laying position on the tree and took a good hard look at him. His icy cold eyes were _screaming _for something. Poor riku…in my mind I was always trying to figure out what you wanted. But then it came clear to me…you always wanted someone to love…so in that aspect you decided to take the one that I loved for yourself isn't that right…? You dirty son of a bitch. Is that what you wanted as a change? To break my heart in exchange for yours? For me to die inside while you live with one full of life? IS THAT WHAT YOU WANTED RIKU?! TO GET BACK AT ME?! YOU SAID YOU WERE ALWAYS JEALOUS OF ME! IS THAT YOUR KIND OF PAYBACK YOU SICK SON OF A BITCH?! IS THIS HOW YOU WANTED IT?!_

I snapped back to real life with my gut filled to the brim with anger and hatred. So much that I even felt like throwing up. So much that my head began to swirl in a mix of colors and emotions and I couldn't think straight.

"ah!…uuugh…hhhnnnn" I knew people were looking at me but I didn't care. Let the bastards look as much as they want. I grabbed my head in agony and stumbled through the hallway screaming-

"AHHH! RIKU! WHERE ARE YOU YOU BASTARD?!"

I stood up still doubled over while leaning against the locker to my left with my hand still clutched to my head in painful agony.

"RIKU! DON'T YOU FUCKING HIDE FROM ME! I'M COMING FOR YOU, YOU SHIT FACED COCK SUCKER!!"

I took the hand that I was leaning on the locker with and pummeled it deep into the cold steel, bending and breaking it with every hit until my fist began to drip blood red. My blood felt cold as steel, and I was in the mood for a massacre. And as I proceeded with the glances still piercing into my skin, I turned the corner and walked a few steps into the branching off hallway. And you'll never guess who I saw at the other end. A head of long silver hair and a pair of icy aquamarine eyes. The bastard himself. Did I fail to mention that he was also rather popular back before this whole ordeal? Well I noticed he had a little posse of old friends behind him as he walked towards me. Tch, like that scared me. But I knew it scared him. I walked up to him slowly with a twisted smile while I watched him hesitantly step each step, carefully walking as if trying not to set off a floor of mousetraps. And to make it even better, I saw him gulp and a bead of sweat flew from his temple, down to his chin, and down to the floor ending in a nice, barely audible _drip._

we stopped a good three meters from each other and a crowd began to form around us. I didn't bother to notice, for my main objective right now was _revenge._ oh sweet sweet revenge…heh, you will be mine.

"you're one dirty, cheap, rotten, pile of shit you know that?…" I narrowed my eyes and spat at him while softly nodding at each adjective. He made a face that screamed that he was appalled and incredibly hurt at the same time. I scanned my eyes across the ever growing crowd while my ears picked up traces of "oh my god" and "what's going on with these guys?" and even a loud obnoxious yell of "FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!"

"But…but sora-"

"don't even start you dirty son of a bitch!"

There was a large "ooooooooo" from the crowd.

"BUT SORA I--_OOMPH_"

Before I realized it I had flown full force at him and landed a heavy punch right across his jaw and laid him out on the floor. He looked at me from the ground with tears in his eyes while holding a hand up to his jaw in disbelief. Oh you better believe it Riku, it really happened.

"(pant, pant, pant)" my breathing grew heavy from the adrenaline pumping through my veins at each pump of blood. And then my voice became dangerously silent along with the crowd around us.

"Is this how you wanted it Riku? Is this what you wanted? To betray your best friend, no, scratch that_, EX _best friend just so you could feel a little better about yourself? To cut everyone else down just so you stay on top?"

His face contorted as tears fell from his eyes drip by drip, leaving a trail of wetness upon each cheek.

"Sora…" he choked through his tears but started again.

"pl-luh-ease (hic) listen to me(hic hic)" but I rose a hand to cut him off.

"no Riku…there's nothing left for me to hear. You back stabbed and deserted me. You betrayed and defiled me. You knew I loved kairi, and you knew she loved me back." I stopped for a breath while the crowd gasped in astonishment and then I walked up to him and knelt at his side so my face was inches from his.

"so why did you do it?" from this close I saw deep into his eyes and I saw an old piece of Riku that I hadn't seen since before we came back to the island: sadness. It was clearly written all over his face from his tear stained cheeks, to his speechlessness. It was there, plain as day. I turned my ear toward him in a mock attempt to get him to answer.

"…? you don't know?" he remained speechless.

"mmhmm…well doesn't that make a lot of sense…? You kissed her and you don't even know why…"

Still he remained silent.

"so I guess…you did it just to piss me off? Heh heh…well my dear Riku" I paused and looked around at the crowd. Everyone was watching intently. Some girls had their eyes wide with shock with their hands over their mouths. Some guys had their brows lined in concern. I shut my eyes and listened to the steady stale breath of the crowd as one going in and out all the while noticing the air becoming thinner and thinner making it harder and harder to breath. I took all of this in in a matter of a few seconds and then dove right back into Riku's icy blue depths.

"It definitely worked…" I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled his face even closer.

"don't fuck with me Riku. You played with fire once and I let you get away with it. But next time I'll make sure to burn you alive." I let go and pushed him back further into the ground and stood up. And as if right on call, the bell rang for first period. I looked at the bell, then back at riku, pushed my way through the crowd, and walked away. But I swear before I got out of earshot I heard Riku mumble "I'm sorry…" it was a pity really… I _almost _regretted what I had just done…almost.

First period came around and I walked ever so casually into the classroom. Heck I even had a little hop to my step while I reminisced to five minutes earlier where I had unleashed hells army on riku. Aaaahhhh revenge was sweet. Room IX was a rather nice room…large with a wonderful arrangement of guitars in the far wall. But then I remembered…_Mr. Myde. _I had no idea if these somebody's were on the good side or the bad side but as of now I definitely had to keep a guard up. So without another thought I walked over and picked up an acoustic guitar. Fender…my favorite. I strummed a few chords to get the juices flowing and began to play. (/watch?vGk1BrKn8ci8 here's the url if you wish to listen along)

_Leave me out with the waste_

_This is not what I do_

_it's the wrong kind of place_

_To be thinking of you_

_it's the wrong time_

_For somebody new_

_it's a small crime_

_And I've got no excuse_

My voice rang throughout the slowly filling classroom, and I noticed a few stares coming my way.

_Is that alright yeah…_

_To give my gun away when its loaded?_

_Is that alright yeah…_

_If you don't shoot it how am I suppose to hold it?_

_Is that alright yeah…_

_To give my gun away when its loaded?_

_Is that alright…with you…_

More and more students entered the room quietly in order to listen to me. Each person was more quiet than a mouse and the atmosphere in the room became more and more dense. I kept my head down for the remainder of the song.

_Leave me out with the waste_

_This is not what I do_

_it's the wrong kind of place_

_To be cheating on you_

_it's the wrong…time_

_And she's pulling me through_

_it's a small crime…_

_And I've got no excuse_

_And is that alright?…yeah_

_To give my gun away when its loaded?_

_Is that alright? Yeah…_

_If you don't shoot it how'm I supposed to hold it?_

_Is that alright? Yeah…_

_To give my gun away when its loaded?_

_Is that alright?…_

_Is that alright with you…_

_Is that alright?…yeah_

_To give my gun away when its loaded?_

_Is that alright?…yeah_

_If you don't shoot it how'm I supposed to hold it?_

_Is that alright? Yeah…_

_To give my gun away when its loaded?_

_Is that alright?…is that alright…with you_

_Is that alriiiiiiight yeaaaaah_

_Is that alriiiiiiight yeaaaaah_

_Is that alriiiiiiight yeaaaaah_

_Is that alright?_

_Is that alright?_

_Is that alright with you?…no _

I ended on a G chord and looked up only to see a full classroom along with a bunch of students who weren't even in this class. When I set the guitar down a got a huge round of applause and just continued to sit on my stool.

"PLAY ANOTHER ONE" and "MORE!!MORE!!" were the responses I got. Never woulda guess people liked my singing that much. But before I could pick up the guitar again, the classroom instructor, _Mr. Myde_, stepped in front of everyone signifying for silence.

"whoo man that was incredible. Nice piece, played originally by Damien Rice no doubt. Tell me kid, what's your name?"

_shit…_ here it was…the very first moment of many that I would loathe this day. I lifted my eyes to meet his blue ones and attempted to speak, but the words were glued to my voice box.

"s…s-s-sora"

His eyes widened in shock.

"S-Sora K-Kurshek…"

He stepped back a step and almost tripped over his desk. Yeah his nobody was just as much a clumsy fool as he was. Hard to believe this guy was strong enough to stay alive from having his heart gone.

All eyes were on him as he attempted to steady himself.

"Oh…sorry. Name sounded familiar was all…aaaaaaanywho." he trailed off and stepped to the front of the class. Before he started talking I looked out to the still large crowd of people just in time to notice a head of burgundy duck out of the classroom alongside a head of silver…and what little emotion I had flared up into a volcano of rage. Unshed tears of hate built up and glassed over my eyes while my gut filled to the brim with anger. I was about to stand up and follow them out until-

"Well hello class." he began in a rather cheerful tone while clapping his hands together.

"As if you couldn't read the board, my name is Mr. Myde."

I sighed and rolled my eyes while placing an elbow on my thigh and my chin into my palm just letting the situation go. A few uneasy glances rolled my way and then back to Mr. Myde. He smirked and turned towards me.

"Hmm…? Do you have something to say Mr. Kurshek?" he raised an eyebrow at me and placed a hand on his hip. I rose both of my hands in mock innocence.

"No sir, nothing at all." and then I returned to my normal position still on the stool in front of the class. He narrowed his eyes at me.

"…Riiiiight…Anyways." He turned back to the class and started a speech.

"Welcome to honors guitar. I, your instructor, am here to lead you further into the depths of the guitarist world, all the while teaching you the true meaning of guitar. _As _guitarists, we live through the chord progressions, the solo's the riffs. We live through all of it. We breathe it if you will. So for this year, I hope not only to teach you about guitar, but I hope to give you something deeper than any lesson could provide." He ended with his arms outstretched as if prepared to fly away. His sleek black shirt with sleeves rolled up to his elbows accentuated his slim yet muscular body while he stood tall in his pair of blue jeans.

"_You _gotta _be kidding me" _I thought quietly to myself. While I looked around the class I noticed everyone's attention was glued to the man standing in front. Eyes from each direction planted onto him, scouring every aspect of his being without any regard for themselves. I noticed envy from a few guys, along with a few dreamy looks from a the girls and thought to myself "_This is going to be a looooooong year." _He stepped a bit to the side and motioned to the large shelf of guitars behind him that rounded the corners of each wall. Every guitarists dream was sitting there within that large rack and there were easily 500 guitars nestled gently in between each nook.

"_As _you can see, we were provided with a large range of guitars this year. From acoustic, to electric and everything in between from companies you've probably never even heard of. This year you will be allowed to choose which guitar you feel will carry you through the year. You may pick more than one if you feel you are capable in multiple areas. For example lets say…acoustic and electric." He looked at me from a side glance and smiled softly. Perhaps this guy isn't nearly as bad as I thought. Perhaps none of them are as bad as I thought. Perhaps the fact of a somebody having a heart eluded me. But now I see it clear as day. So with a clap of his hands together he eyed the rest of the class and signaled for everyone to stand up.

"So lets get started, shall we?"

A soft murmur vibrated through the classroom as each of the students hopped to their feet in excitement. Mr. Myde stepped to his desk on the side wall and peered intently into his computer.

"Okay I'll start calling names and you can go ahead and pick out a guitar of yours." he peeked up from his computer at the class for a moment before plunging back into the computer screen.

"Oookay lets see here…Madge Autral?" A boy with black hair jumped up and jingled from all of his chains. He was decked in a pair of red trips with a red and white flyleaf shirt. His long black hair waved in thick tendrils as he wiped it to the side with his black nail polished fingers…Tch poser. While name after name was called I slowly drifted off into the confines of my mind. In the real world I still felt my hand on my chin and my elbow on my thigh, but it was as if I were dreaming. Darkness…the beautiful darkness trapped within my mind and the pit of what I used to call a heart. Slowly I drifted further and further into my thoughts to the point that it felt I could walk around in my own head. I walked ever so slowly looking at the walls of my mind. Picture frames of memories planted on the walls going down a narrow, dimly lit hallway. And then I saw something. A black silhouette standing right across from me with something in its hand outstretched to me. It pumped every little bit while it oozed a red liquid that rode down the sides of its hand and down its arm in skinny little rivers. Its long black nails cutting into the sides of it, crushing it. If it were a living thing, it would have been writhing in pain and screaming for its life to end. Its sick black skin was like an endless abyss that you couldn't tell where it started or where it ended and its yellow eyes pierced the dark like light houses. Its mouth curled into a grin, baring a palette of sharp yellow teeth, giving off the stench of blood and death. I clenched my fists and summoned my key blades.

"Who are you?"

"_Nothing…Everything…Truth…Lies…What do you want the most?" _It sneered at me while drawing closer. Each step leaving behind a black smoky footprint. I crouched while it drew closer, preparing myself for attack.

"Stay where you are! don't come any closer." my dagger sharp glare stopped it a mere five meters from me. I heard a soft _bum bum _and took a closer look at the object in its hand. My eyes tore open in shock.

"What…oh my god what is that?!"

"_this is your heart…our heart…the sole thing that binds us both in eternal balance of light and dark. My dearest Sora…embrace me, I will show you the true meaning of darkness." _My glare softened to a slight gaze and I ever so slightly lowered my blades.

"_Do you remember this morning? I was there with you. I was always there with you my dear Sora, you were never alone. I was that voice. But in time you will understand." _

"Sora?"

My shadow held its hand out to me as it ever so slowly began to fade away.

"Sooooora?"

I stood with my feet planted in place as I watched the last wisps of its outline disperse into black tufts of smoke. And then I felt a hand on my shoulder shake me.

"EARTH TO MISTER ANGRY PANTS?!"

"Wha…?" I shot my eyes open and looked around the classroom only to see the line had gone down a considerable amount and those that were left were looking at me rather awkwardly.

"R-Roxas? What are you doing here?" I rubbed the last bit of daydream out of my eye and softly smiled.

"Uh…why else would I be in here?" he said, " I play guitar too ya know, I told you that before!"

"Oh…Yeah…" I rubbed the back of my neck and looked at the ground.

"SORA KURSHEK?" Both Roxas and I turned around at the calling of my name.

"Your turn to go pick out a guitar my young friend." Mr. Myde shifted his eyes to the guitar rack and softly smiled. This was going to be a long year…

--

The bell rung signaling the end of class along with the shuffling of feet on the floor on the way out the classroom. I grabbed my bag and swiftly walked out the door and down the hall side by side with roxas and stopped when he began to stammer softly.

"Um…Uh…Sora?" I turned around to find him with his eyes glued to the floor and twiddling his fingers.

"Um…Did…Did you really beat up…Riku?" he hesitantly brought his nervous eyes to my placid ones and I let out a soft smirk. I turned back around and began walking to my next period with him on my heels.

"The fucker had it comin'." I batted my hand and threw it off as if it were no big thing.

"But-But Sora! What did he even do?" I kept on walking but narrowed my eyes ever so slightly taking in every aspect of every living thing that walked past me.

"…He broke my heart…" I heard the footsteps stop and I turned around abruptly to see him gaping at me in shock.

"Y-You-YOU'RE GAY?!" I smacked my forehead and continued walking.

"(sigh) No Roxas." I said over my shoulder. "I'm not gay." He fell into step with me and regained his composure eyes still slightly wide with interest.

"Oh whew, haha you had me for a sec there Sora, but really, what did Riku even do to you? Last time I remembered you guys were like best fr--"

"Well things have changed…" I cut him off lowering my eyes and my voice. "Everything's changed…" I walked a little faster not daring to let him see the tears welding up in my eyes. The thought of Riku's lips on Kairi's still burned a vivid image into my retina's.

"Sora?" I didn't answer. I turned a corner and began descending the staircase with Roxas still on my heels. I felt a hand on my shoulder and was whirled around to be face to face with him. He caught me…

"Sora…why are you crying?" He looked almost shocked. I turned back around and wiped my eyes taking in glances from a passerby every here and there and continued descending the staircase.

"I was on my way to Kairi's house yesterday." I began with a soft sob.

"Everything felt perfect in my eyes. The sun was shining. The birds were singing. But when I got there…Riku…" I stopped for the pain of the memory ripping me apart inside.

" Riku he…he was there already…kissing her…" I stopped abruptly and looked at Roxas. He remained silent for the rest of the walk until I got to my second period.

"Well Roxas…I'll talk to you later." I patted him on the shoulder and smiled softly at him and walked into the classroom.

"Uh Sora?"

"Yeah?"

"Um…I have this class too ya know."

"Oh…" I shifted my eyes to the ground. "Well get in here then." And I ended with a smirk. It was a nice sized classroom, fit way more than cozily for a math class at that. Instead of desks there were rows of large luxurious recliners and a soft navy blue shag carpet. Quite comparable to a large living room with a mahogany desk in the corner.

"(whistle) Daaaaaaamn these guys sure didn't hold back this year. This is incredible. First the guitars and now this." And without wasting another second he went and plopped down into one of the chairs and became awfully comfortable. déjà vu just like at my house. At that memory I slapped a hand to my forehead.

"(sigh) Roxas Roxas Roxas…"

"Yes Roxas indeed…" I jumped as a deep voice grumbled behind me and a hand placed on my shoulder.

"Oh…(sigh) Mr. Ienzo, you scared me."

He smiled softly and gave a small laugh that could lift anyone's spirits. Complete opposite of his nobody.

"Yes my dear boy, it's only me." his easy look soon fell to seriousness and he leaned down to whisper in my ear.

"Sora…you, me, and everyone else here are in grave danger. Come meet me and the rest of the teachers at the end of the day in the parking lot." he stopped and looked at Roxas. "Bring the weird one too."

I furrowed my brow in confusion as he walked away over to his desk and into his computer. But how in the world did he know? He was right though…we are in grave danger. And just then I felt like someone was watching me. Two pairs of eyes dug into the back of my head until I turned around. I turned away quickly in disgust and went to take a seat before they could say anything. A large red mark from where I hit him stained his face like strawberry jam. And her light violet eyes shone mistily in the light of the classroom as she looked me over. I couldn't have imagined a more pitiful picture. A broken pair of my oldest best friends…Riku and Kairi.

She slowly walked up to Roxas and I with a quiver in each step as she waved Riku off.

"Sora…" the hurt in her voice was so apparent. But why did it start to hurt now? Of all the times, why did it begin to impact me?

"Sora…" she chocked. "I just really want you to know how sorry I am." I breathed out long and hard and cross my arms and turned my head to look out the window…but I was still listening.

"You have no idea how sorry I am do you?" I sunk in my chair as each of her words did the same into me.

"Do you know…how much it hurt me to see you like that?" I shut my eyes still intently listening to each of her words.

"What do you want Kairi?" My words were dull, boring all the amount of hurt I sustained over the days.

"It's just not the same Sora…" she wrapped her arms around herself and started sobbing.

"I l-love you (sniff) more than anything. And Riku he…He was just confused…he wasn't himself." silence grew over the last of her words and I slowly turned to her. She was still as beautiful as ever but…I can't do this again. I stiffened and turned back to the window.

"Just go away Kairi…I don't know you anymore."

"But…" she raised her voice a little. "What about that night on the beach? Don't you remember how perfect it was? Don't you remember how in love we--"

"KAIRI JUST GO!" I snapped at her with tears in my eyes.

"Please…just go…"

And with a defeated look I followed her with my eyes to the other side of the classroom where she sat down and cried…I'm so…so sorry Kairi. But I just can't do this again. You're better off without me, and so am I without you…Roxas slid off his chair and put an arm around my shoulder.

"It was a good thing you did my friend, she's better off without you…And who knows? Maybe it'll all turn out for the better, I mean there's plenty of other hot girls out there and I'm positive a _ton_ of them will be more than--"

"Roxas just…please…leave me alone for a while…" He backed up a few steps with a sorry look on his face and shone a broke a broken smile and went to sit back down.

"It really was a good thing you did my boy…" Mr. Ienzo said as he placed a comforting hand on my shoulder.

"You'll be cherishing this for the rest of your life."

And with that, Math class trudged onwards in a blur, as did the rest of the day. The laughter in the hallways between each class was distant. The looks of every familiar face became foreign. The simple hallway layout became a maze. And time became a slug. I gained much help and support from Roxas but it proved to no avail…I was a mess. My thoughts were scattered across the universe as the shadows talked to me. To me it felt like darkness was my only way out and it just seemed so right. I Just couldn't go on with this pain that tore me apart each step of the way.

Chemistry was nothing new and Mr. Evan wasn't nearly as bad as his nobody…in fact none of them were as bad as their nobodies, all with a striking resemblance to boot. Mr. Aeleus, Professor Drulo, Mr. Dalin, Professor Amarlia, Mr. Ale, Mrs. Arlene, Professor Sai, Professor Braig, and Mr. Ansem all kind in their own manor heeded me with the same warning and request. "Be careful, we are all in danger, meet me in the parking lot at the end of the day." and each time I heard it, it pounded ever so deeper into my memory gland, we all really are in danger…Xemnas really is out to get us, and it came to me…I must save us all once again.

I walked to my locker with my mind still a blur and shoved all my books and binders in for the night. It closed with a _chink _and I leaned back against it as I sunk to the floor. Everyone around me seemed so happy. Couples were kissing. Teachers were done teaching. The nerds were nerding. The gangsters were gangstering. Everything seemed so correctly balanced but no…nothing was, and unfortunately for them all they would have to find out the hard way. The bell rang once again signaling the official end of the day and I rose to my feet and made my lonesome way down to the parking lot for the most important meeting of my life.

"Hey, you ok?" I turned around as a hand fell on my shoulder and I smiled softly.

"Yeah Roxas I'm fine, lets go, we have to get down to the parking lot and talk with the teachers."

"Oh no, not more teachers…" He groaned and smacked his forehead.

"Heh don't worry Roxas…teaching should be the last thing on their minds right about now."

"Oh thank God." he breathed out and wiped his forehead. "I thought it was some sort of after school session. I would have had to kill myself." He rose his hands and fake stabbed himself in the stomach and fell over.

"Haha oh Roxas…you're so weird you know that?"

"No Mr. Point-out-the-obvious-a lot I had no clue." he said sarcastically as he got up. I raised my eye impatiently as I stepped out the exit of the high school and looked around. On the far edge of the lot underneath a massive tree surrounded by their cars was a circle of teachers, no doubt mine and Roxas's. I saw Ienzo's lips move and all the teachers looked our direction as we came closer and closer.

"Okay…so what is this all about?" I said readjusting my hat on my head and my backpack on my back

They all looked at each other knowledgeably and turned their focus on me. Ienzo stepped forward.

"We know where your parents are."

* * *

(GASP) oooh how i hate to do this to you guys (and love it at the same time) but it just felt like it had to end right there. but oooh, the somebody's arent so scary, and the suspense is rising WHOOHOO its finally getting where wanted it to go, and i PROMISE from now on i will try and update weekly, so NENG, DIVINEROSE, and anyone else who reads this...please please help me get this around. i'll love you forever


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